>>Warning : Thread drift ahead...
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>>>Or rather bankrupt the parents... oops, no more. New law as of 2005. They will be in debt forever, no more easy bankruptcy unless you're a corporation.
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>>First off bankruptcy for a corporation has never been easy. It frequently results in a complete liquidation.
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>>Secondly, do you believe that anyone should be able to file bankruptcy on a whim? Should people be able to take on as much debt as they want and then decide not to pay so the lenders are stuck without recourse?
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>There was no evidence that credit card companies did much in the way of verifying the ACTUAL creditworthiness of an applicant. And even less so today. Hell, there was even a plan by one to offer cards to undcumented aliens!
>The lenders could have protected themselves much more easily if they had only performed proper credit verification and learned to say NO to many applicants. But they chose instead to get the law changed so that their assets could be protected at literally no "cost" to themselves. A nice gig if you can get it, and they did!

>No, people should not take on as much debt as they can and them declare bankruptcy to get out from under. But to date the credit card companies have been helping them bury themselves rather than preventing defauts. They treat each card holder like an open spigot for cash and then feign surprise when the flow is cut.

I recognize the problems on both sides. Lenders throwing money at unsuspecting people has led to more than just the recent housing crisis. At the same time people are applying for loans WAY out of their range because they can. Lying on applications is rampant, and in some cases encouraged. For me this comes down to responsibility. The people should not have an easy way to simply walk away from the debt they incurred and the companies shouldn't be bailed out by the FED and congress.

As it happens, the congress bails out the big banks and the FED can't lower rates fast enough. Now, there's a relief package for the borrowers so everyone gets a bailout. Meanwhile the dollar tanks and gold/oil soar.

We've had this discussion before. I remember telling you about when I was in college that I wondered why there were CC companies setting up booths near the bookstore every day. I was informed by a friend who used to run a bank that one of the reasons the big companies did it is to get the college students into CC debt early because the young are more likely to miss payments or only pay the minimum or default and they can jack up the rates.

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>>I've known a few people who've gone through the process and all but 1 could've gotten out of their debt with a couple years of strict fiscal management. Instead they took the easy way out with the only condition being that they could not file again for 7 years. What kind of lesson is that?