This might be a good month to think about credit-card debt.

U.S. consumer debt recently reached $2.2 trillion, double what it was about a decade ago. According to the Federal Reserve Board, the debt topped the $1 trillion mark for the first time in December 1994.

That doesn’t count mortgages. Throw those in, and Americans owe about $9 trillion.

Look at it this way: The credit card industry says average household consumer debt is about $9,000, and it’s reported to be closer to $13,000 when you exclude the households that pay their bills in full each month.

Most don’t manage to make that deadline, of course. Three out of five American families carry credit-card debt, and in 2002, the average household spent $1,700 per year on finance charges and late fees, according to one report.

Robert Manning, author of the book “Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America’s Addiction to Credit,” has called credit cards “yuppie food stamps” that are seen as a “social-class entitlement.”

That entitlement is becoming not just more pervasive, but more expensive. Manning says “the cost of borrowing on credit has tripled in real terms since the early 1980s” due to tinkering with interest rates.

This accumulating debt, far greater than is found in any other nation, can’t be good for our future, and it already has screwed up the present for a good number of people. A record number of Americans, 1.6 million, filed for personal bankruptcy protection in 2003.

For credit-card issuers, high debt levels sound like easy money. But even if you benefit financially from out-of-control consumer spending, remember that the game isn’t over yet.

All of you sellers of insurance, money market checking accounts and 401(k) plans know you’re better off in the long run with financially stable clients who have money to invest and will be able to pay their debts.

We’re not going to pass laws limiting personal debt, so what can be done? That seems like a good question to be addressed in a financial services hub such as Greater Des Moines.

Is it possible to check your appetite for quick profits now in the interest of long-term stability?

That’s why our Iowa hunting seasons include bag limits, so we don’t wipe our game population out all at once. And there’s no easier target than an American consumer who has just spotted a bright, shiny object with a price tag.