"Responsibility"

Responsible to whom?

    Consumers’ “responsibility” includes making payments , no matter what.  The consumer is “responsible” for deciphering the tiny-print legalese that is their credit card, personal loan, or mortgage agreement.¹⁴  The consumer is “responsible” for protecting himself from identity theft, for a fee, despite the fact that he lacks control over how his information is collected, stored, and distributed.  Consumer “responsibility” includes acting against one’s own economic interests by continuing payments on an underwater mortgage.
     While members of Congress were bemoaning “irresponsible” debtors, and financial “gurus” were telling us to to get three jobs in order to preserve our credit scores, very few stopped to ponder what it means to be a “responsible” lender.  Is it "responsible" to approve a mortgage without verifying the applicants income?  Is it "responsible" to charge 49.9% for a credit card that's specifically aimed at those with little means?  
    Is it "responsible" to require all to borrow by using credit scores as a determinant of employment and fair pricing?  If borrowing money is such a central part of being a “responsible” citizen, then why is it that only a handful of states require any form of financial education in our nations’ classrooms?  
    One of the synonyms of the word "responsibility” is "accountability."  Both words are often used with an implicit assumption that a "responsible, "accountable" person makes decisions based on facts and circumstances.  If circumstances require one to borrow in order to establish credit, shouldn't that person also have the opportunity to know the facts of credit scoring, handling debt payments, and loan terms?  How else can one be expected to be a "responsible" borrower?
     And today's concept of consumer "responsibility" has changed the way we do business.  In most lines of business, the business owner is responsible for pleasing his customers at the risk of losing his livelihood.  In the bizarre world that is consumer lending, the customer serves the business, acquiescing to its demands and intrusions to avoid having his character impugned and his economic choices limited. 

     How is THAT responsible?