For a wide swath of society, credit cards are like a drug. If you don't think so, volunteer in a church or community financial counseling program. Good folks who make the median income plus or minus a few percentiles but are in horrible financial shape. They can't tell you anything about their monthly expenses--they're just paying bills, including credit card payments, until the money is gone and then they put as much back on the card the last few days before payday as they paid on the card a week earlier. Ask them to bring one month's of statements and bills to start putting together a budget, and they'll retreat and try to cover their tracks as if they had been caught in a hotel room with the pianist. The fact that they made a bad choice to spend $100 on cable, $150 on cellphones, and $205 on a car payment per month doesn't matter. They just know that they're $250-300 short every month and don't know where their money is going. To prove their thrift, they skip vacations, buy clothes from the thrift store, and use coupons, but they'll eat out four times a week (have to eat, you know) and buy gas for their 4x4 truck or SUV (have to buy gas) on a card. They're "paying the bills" and "buying what they have to buy" but they just don't understand that their discretionary bills and expenditures are the result of their own choices.
A gambler can beat the house, but the game usually favors the house in the long run. Likewise, corporate America has recognized the power of the plastic, and nearly every regional and national company that deals with daily consumers has moved to the swipe. Corporations are winning, and individuals are losing. People on this forum and elsewhere might criticize the anti-credit card argument, but honestly, it would be a toss up to determine if our society was better off today with the available credit than it was a couple generations ago when you had to know the shop owner to get store credit, and the only credit most folks had was a mortgage. It bothers me that we push bills into laws over a behavior that affects 0.001% of the population but do nothing about behaviors that negatively affect 40, 50, 60% of the population--finances are the leading cause of divorce. I understand the concept of personal choice, but many business practices are unethical at best and predatory at worst.
If I had my choice, I would vote to toss credit cards to the curb as a society. I use them responsibly and enjoy the benefits mentioned in this thread, but I know too many people who might be better off were they to live in a cash society. Not every advancement that is available is positive. Losing the rewards that I currently get wouldn't bother me at all. I think we could make up the difference in other ways.