Quote:
Originally Posted by woj
I do probably sound a bit like a cold asshole, but it's a bitch having to pay for someone else's fuck ups. It may not be obvious, but just like the bank bailouts, we are all indirectly paying the bill for all these bankruptcies.
It's one thing when a failed entrepreneur files for bankruptcy, but it's another when some careless idiot racks up well into 5 figures of credit card debt. Just look at these statistics:
"19% of Americans between the ages of 18-24 declared bankruptcy in 2001. (USA Today)"
"The fastest growing group of bankruptcy filers are those people who are 25 years of age or younger. (Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, 2002) " <= yea, I bet ya those are health expenses there 
"# The typical filer is a white, married homeowner who works full-time, with a household income of less than $30,000 and an average debt of $47,000. (Not including home mortgage)"
"# 19% of filers are college students" <- yup, job loss, divorce and/or medical expenses there for sure 
"# 51% of filers have a close friend or relative that has also filed " <- "What?! You are still paying off that debt like a sucker? File for banktruptcy, I did it, it was easy and painless!"
"# 63% of filers blamed credit card bills. 50% blamed mismanagement. 37% blamed pay cuts or job loss, and 28% blamed medical bills"
"# 43% of the general public polled said bankruptcy is an acceptable and easy way to settle financial difficulties"
Source: http://www.bankruptcylawinformation....event=dspStats |
Yes, some people are irresponsible and abuse the system. That's true of every system in the history of the world though.
It's not uncommon, for someone filing bankruptcy, to "owe" a credit card company 10 to 20K, but they only ever borrowed 2K.
Then they lost their job, missed a payment, and the over the limit and late fees and 30% interest started racking up. After spending a couple of years trying to catch up, they've finally been thrown into a hole so deep that they can never climb out.
Alot of people pay off their medical bills with credit cards, and then fall behind on the credit card payments, and then this same situation happens to them.
As for your snide remarks about college students, credit card companies target college students, give them cards with a few hundred dollars in spending power, and then if they can't pay, tack on interest and late charges until the student owes them 10K.
If you want to feel morally superior to these people then I'm sure you'll be able to find statistics to back that up. There's a shitload of propaganda out there about bankruptcy, and it's put out there by the credit card industry. If you want to believe that instead of doing real research to find the true data, then more power to you.
I have a friend, a guy on my bowling team, who is an attorney who does alot of bankruptcies. I thought like you did until I talked to him about it for awhile. (I had a relative asking to borrow money to file for bankruptcy, and I was trying to talk them out of filling because I thought it was the wrong thing to do)
After listening to him and doing some research, I realized he was telling the truth.
Once you fall behind because of a job loss, medical emergency, death of a spouse or divorce, etc....it's almost impossible to catch up because of the onerous penalties and interest that then apply. You end up paying more in interest and late fees afterwards than what your total payments were before.
Most of the credit card companies have been paid back several times what they loaned by the time the borrower gets to bankruptcy. That's a fact that they don't want you to know about.