For some Ohioans, use of credit cards is a carefully planned luxury — perhaps used to ensure the accumulation of lots of airline or hotel points — for purchases that can be paid off within a month or two.

But for Buckeye State residents between the ages of 18 and 34, a recent analysis of Federal Reserve data shows the use of credit cards feels like a necessity — and one that is causing them to rack up higher-than-average levels of debt. Along with those high levels of debt come high levels of delinquency, according to a report on the data by the Ohio Capital Journal.

Ohio ranks 16th in the nation for severe credit card delinquency — 17.1% of young people had that status in the first quarter of this year. Are we working to educate and support young adults while we develop policies that diversify and expand our economy so that they have hope? Or are we looking so far backward we’ve left them running into a brick wall and just trying to survive?

Lawmakers and other public officials who don’t know the answer to that question would do well to step out of the way and let someone else get to work.