No - not all Western culture is dependent upon credit! Stupid kids who run up huge credit card bills in the UK would wonder what hit them if they tried to do the same thing in Germany!
Personal debt and the 'Never never' (as HP was once termed) were once considered rather infra dig. Whereas nowadays the concept of 'save first, then spend' is alien to many.
I used to use a debit card until the bank started charging for its use in other countries, so now I use an airline Visa card. My income gains interest (not much now, thanks to Incapability '$hit' Brown and the idiot Darling) during the month, then I pay off my monthly bills at the end of the month by automatic direct debit - and the airline also gives me 1 mile for each £ or € spent....
Anyway, the moral is not to spend what you haven't got - so I hope that a reasonable payrise will make things easier for the Armed Forces over the coming months.
By the way, in what way were oil companies obliged to toe the line under government pressure?