Additionally, within their first year at college, one in five students carries credit card debt of more than $10,000. Some college students find it necessary to change their majors or drop out of school because of debt. Some have declared bankruptcy and still others have killed themselves because of their debt.

Financial problems and issues are the number one cause of divorce, the number one stressor in people's lives and the driving force behind most violence. All of these social problems stem from the financial problems that threaten and limit everyone's future. Bankruptcy and credit counseling provide valuable safety nets, but they are not panaceas. Each comes with its own long-term emotional and financial ramifications and consequences.

We are a country and a people at risk because we've bought into the idea of buying now and paying later. As the founder of the Femonomics Institute, I've been working with clients around their money issues for more than a decade. On a daily basis I see and speak to people who have allowed the marketing efforts of major financial institutions to generate huge profits for their companies and huge debt for themselves.

To move from a credit card culture to a more asset-driven country, we need to be clear that overspending (building debt) is as dangerous as drinking, taking drugs and smoking. Overspending may be an addiction (compulsive spending) but more often it's just a very cunning adversary. It doesn't cause the specific physical impairments that smoking, drinking and drugging do, so it's rarely recognized for the threat it poses to emotional and physical well-being (depression, ulcers, sleeplessness, etc.).

The web of debt is a mirror on the soul that reflects the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes we each harbor, regarding our self-worth. Credit card companies prey on those weaknesses, leaving far too many Americans praying for a miracle to rescue them from their financial woes.

The time has come to create an anti-debt movement in much the same way we created an anti-drug and anti-alcohol movement, and a stop-smoking movement.

Let's tell the financial industry we're going to hold them more accountable for their role in creating a social structure drowning in debt just as we now hold the alcohol and tobacco industries more accountable for the potential damage of their products.

Let's require credit card companies to print a warning on each card that says "using this card may be dangerous to your life, your health and your future."

Instead of ads that promote imprudent spending, let's demand credit card companies to create advertising campaigns warning that friends and families don't allow those they love to spend money they don't have.

Let's insist that access to credit be more judiciously administered and monitored, so that fewer individuals find themselves mired in debt.

Let's work to eliminate credit card solicitations from our campuses, our mailboxes, and our magazines, so that those who are most vulnerable aren't tempted to try to solve the problems of their lives at the cost of their futures.

Let's require financial institutions to suffer the consequences (losses) of their efforts to lure unsuspecting and unqualified customers into spending money they don't have, rather than blaming the victims they so carefully targeted.

Let's compel credit card companies to be part of the solution rather than the cause of the problem by having them fund financial competency education in our schools, organizations and workplaces.

I've spent the past decade helping people to reclaim control of their money and regain control of their lives. Now I recognize the clear imperative to create social change through mass group participation that results in legislation capable of ending the downward spiral of personal debt in the most affluent country in the world.

Let's all join together as advocates for credit card reform, so that our actions and our words have the impact necessary to mandate greater credit card company accountability. All those who want to be a part of this movement, sign up here.