DEBT PORN

n.

Stories related to people who run up massive amounts of debt. Also: debt pornography.

If "Double Down" and "24/7" are more exciting reads, it's mostly because the stakes are higher. Both books have the thrilling appeal of debt porn, those cautionary magazine articles in which the writer confesses to having thousands of dollars in credit card bills. Readers who dally a bit above their means experience an easy, reflexive sympathy while at the same time vicariously living the cheap excitement of charging fancy dinners, cashmere sweaters and Prada shoes. It's armchair spending.

—Jeff Stark, "In Nevada' by David Thomson, '24/7' by Andrés Martinez and 'Double Down' by Frederick and Steven Barthelme," Salon.com, December 1, 1999

The best debt porn relies on a first-person voice—'Credit Cards Ruined My Life' (Teen magazine) or 'Confessions of a Credit Card Queen' (Essence)—and a familiar narrative arc: temptation leads to excess leads to a downward spiral of spending, evoked for our disapproving pleasure. Then—wham—rock bottom: she breaks down while forging a credit-card application; he realizes he has never opened half his purchases.

—-Margaret Talbot, "Debt Voyeurs," The New York Times Magazine, July 18, 1999

affluenza

carnography

famine theft

financial pornography

gadget porn

gorno

homedebtor

inconspicuous consumption

domestic pornography

eco-porn

fiscalamity

gastroporn

investment pornography

jingle mail

peak debt

porn sifter

poverty effect

sloppy payer

stoozing

sudden loss of wealth syndrome

sudden wealth syndrome

time porn

voluntary simplicity

wealth effect

zombie debtor

Money

Pornography