Practically every day they approach me with their enticing come-ons. It's cheap, they say. It'll make me feel good. What's the harm in trying?

Cigarette-makers? Liquor companies? Crack dealers?

Credit card firms.

It's hard to imagine a more unsavory, predatory business than the credit card industry, which preys on human weakness and then, after getting its claws into you, holds customers hostage until they can meet the companies' utterly exorbitant terms for release.