People have a tendency to take things for granted that have been around for quite a while, and/or have been around since the day that they were born, and therefore reasonably conclude that things such as the easy access to credit has always existed, but it has not. There actually was a time when there were zero credit cards, but that didn't mean that you as a consumer had no credit capacity, it meant instead, that any credit capacity that you had was dependent upon the local store or the local depot, actually knowing personally who and what you were, as well as the possibility of bartering something of yours for something of theirs, or a personal guarantee that you would be good for the credit or vouchsafed by another family member, or surety in something that you physically owned, for the trading of goods in one form of another, has existed for millenniums, and is the type of transaction that done with appropriate prudence, of definite benefit, for both parties.
In today's society, those that desire credit get such typically through an application done in store, or to the response of mail solicitations, as well as the phone or internet solicitations, in which the institutions accepting your application of credit, do not personally know you, whatsoever, but rely on public information, previous credit history, demographics, and assorted other factors to determine your credit reliability, and often will, in absence of blatantly bad credit, issue you credit routinely, even for people, that have somewhat suspect earnings or earning capacity.
This issuance of credit, can either be a boon or a bane, depending upon how it is treated by the recipient, in which, for some people, a relatively significant percentage of people, once that they do receive credit and make their first charge, do not ever, except perhaps when in receipt of a lump sum tax refund or similar, pay off their credit card balance in full. While it is true, that the banks issuing such credit, love those types of consumers that constantly have to pay interest, penalties, fees and the like, surprisingly, those that are indebted to such, don't really mind doing so, because without this additional credit capacity available to them, they could not make it day by day, or week by week.
This then leads to the thought, what happens, when your credit capacity disappears overnight, or your credit limit is significantly reduced overnight; for those that extend credit, have the option of terminating such or reducing such, in order to protect their assets, for it is always them extending the favor to you, and therefore it is their option to do so, as compared to believing that you as a consumer, have a "right" to have credit. The most recent time when credit was reduced or terminated, suddenly, was during the great recession from 2007-2009, in which, some banks, were quite quick to reduce credit limits orto even close accounts, in which, the closing of such, necessitated payment in full.
This means that those that are not able to function in today's society without the credit extended to them by credit card issuers, are essentially in hock to those banks, signifying a dependence to an institution, that giveth and taketh away, and should that credit disappear, would thereby force one to live within their ready-cash means, with their options available going forward being much worse, making them vulnerable to financial ruin. So that those without money or at least enough money to stay current, or have access to credit that serves the same purpose, will find few options, other than a life that will become the equivalency of permanent servitude to those that control the purse as well as your access to it.