Over the last decade, U.S. industrial employment has been ravaged by Neoliberal “free trade” policies and corporate outsourcing while workers have struggled to retain the basic vestiges of the American Dream. Sadly, as the post-industrial society has eroded the industrial heartland of middle-class America, the mall has replaced the factory as the engine of the US economy. Indeed, one of the distinguishing features of the “new economy” is that it is more profitable to finance consumption than production. And, as real wages have declined and basic living expenses have soared, American families have become increasingly dependent upon consumer credit and debt to maintain their lifestyle and, too often, simply to survive.