This article would be amusing if the reality of the hangover afterward did not have to be dealt with. I have lived and worked in Panama for over 12 years and the one thing I am always amazed at is the priority a party is to people here. This is one of the reasons there are so many paid holidays and why you have to pay employees 2 1/2 times salary to work on any of these days. To a Panamanian, nothing is more important than a holiday and the biggest holiday is the carnival which comes each February. The entire country basically shuts down for a week long party.
Unfortunately, the banks offering credit cards to anyone with a job coupled with the lack of financial education, quickly get people in debt beyond their capacity to pay it back. This article spells out just how far in debt the people are going just to party at carnival.
Excerpts from La Prensa;
More Panamanians party themselves into massive credit card debt over the five-day Carnival holiday than during any other season, including Christmas, according to data from the Panamanian Credit Association.
Statistics showed that credit limit plays a significant role in spending behavior. Those with limits of $2,000 or less demonstrated the most restraint in their purchases, while those with ceilings of between $1,000 and $2,000 tended to burn through more borrowed funds.
Economists speculated that the phenomenon seemed to be most marked in younger, lower-income consumers with less experience in managing credit. And the scramble for cash on loan isn’t just limited to credit cards.
“People pawn just about everything they own,” said Lina de Serracín of Casa de Empeños América, a chain of pawn shops throughout the country. “Customers forget about everything during Carnival and then when the holiday is over they’re left scavenging to pay for their trip home.”
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