Are credit cards evil or just dangerous?

I hate defending credit card companies.

It's like sticking up
for used-car salesmen, or Congress. Saying anything nice makes you feel
like a patsy, since their defects are so readily apparent.

But in the debate over whether credit cards are inherently evil, I must proclaim myself an advocate for the purported devils.

The
idea that plastic is a snake in your wallet, tempting you to sin, is
probably as old as the first Diners Club card (issued in 1950, if you
care). Today, the more refined argument made by some attorneys is that
credit cards are defective by their very design, a point that's argued
in "Why it pays to leave home without it,"
by recent University of Illinois College of Law graduate Adam
Goldstein. He argues that the cards are products, not services, and are
designed specifically to take advantage of consumer vulnerabilities.

Most arguments against credit cards not