当卡特里娜飓风肆虐美国墨西哥湾沿岸，让美国这个最富有的国家很不情愿的面对现实：无论个人还是政府面对灾害在所造成的债务负担都有着摇摇欲坠感。本片记录深入讲述了美国的各种债务关系样式。当然，美国的大多数人已经觉得没有什么不正常，毕竟有还有信用。本片对现代的金融业务进行解读，告诉大家为什么穷人更穷，富人更富。美国绝大多数人都要面对这些接踵不暇的不安感。

In this shocking and illuminating road trip through an America ravaged by debt,award-winning film director James Scurlock examines our multitrillion-dollar addiction to easy credit in all of its absurdities and contradictions.

Maxed Outventures beyond the mind-numbing statistics to expose a financial industry spinning wildly out of control. From the gilded master-planned communities of Northern Las Vegas to the shotgun shacks of the Deep South, the world's largest financial institutions are trolling for customers, hooking the nouveau riche and the poor alike with promises of cheap and easy credit. Maxed Outexposes how Wall Street and Congress spawned the subprime mortgage crisis and reveals how credit card issuers form multimillion-dollar partnerships with universities--paying them millions for access to their students' personal information, setting kids up for financial ruin before their first job. The industry's final frontier, "debt buying," is a veritable Wild West in which ambitious young men make quick fortunes off the misery and misfortune of others.