Credit card companies encourage easy credit to get us hooked on “buy now, pay later.” They want consumers to carry a balance, paying off the minimum and incurring more debt. Credit card companies earn revenue from the interest they charge if users carry a credit card balance, as well as from fees for things like late payments. During the pandemic people didn’t spend as much and many have paid their balances with their savings and stimulus money. Americans paid off $82.1 billion in debt in 2020, although $900 billion is still owed. But now that the economy is reopening, credit card companies will try to push those balances back up again by dangling sparkly offers of a better life through easy credit.

In making “Credit Line,” I used 14K gold-filled wire and name-brand Swarovski crystals, rather than less expensive brass wire and glass beads, to reinforce the temptation to spend beyond our means. Sure, with a credit card you can have real gold and crystals too, you can have anything you want! Solid 14K and diamonds? Why not?

And yes, that is real U.S. paper currency in the counterweight.