Once upon a time there was a society whose members ceaselessly sought after, incessantly craved, and constantly consumed “CREDIT.”  There was not a single, solitary, person in the entire community who did not torment themselves with an obsession for the accumulation of admiration, recognition, respect and acclaim.  A certain member of this society purchased a BRAND NEW car and thereby desperately hoped to be endowed with some significant amount of credit/recognition/praise for having “impeccable taste“, for having “so shrewdly negotiated such a good deal“, or for simply having the means to procure something so “new and shiny.”  Another member of this society possessed a ShabbyOldWornOut car; it was wracked with mileage, covered with rust, the tires were bald, the interior was tattered, the hubcaps had been lost, the stereo didn’t work, and the A/C had long since gone kaput.  And thus the man anxiously expected to derive some significant amount of credit/recognition/praise for having “endured so much,” for having “persevered for so long,” for having “successfully avoided the allurements and entrapments of worldliness, materialism, and vanity.”  And still there was a third member of this society who Disdained the “Credit Competition” entirely.  This particular member prided himself on “being the bigger man”, and “not getting swept away, or caught up in, such frivolous & vacuous contests.”  And consequently this man acutely craved, and anguished over ascertaining, some significant amount of credit/recognition/praise for having “shunned such superficial games,” for having “maintained his position above the fray,” for being “so much more mature than all those fools who desperately loiter about panhandling for credit.“