I happened to stop at the Suze Orman show last night and was amazed at what I heard. This 31 year old woman had $25,000 in credit card debt, $14,000 in student loans, a $12,000 car payment, and a mortgage . . . and only made $2000 a month.
Suze did a great job of confronting this woman who admitted she was living on credit cards. She knew that she didn't have enough cash coming in but didn't want to have to cut back or get another job.
What I think is ridiculous is that this woman could declare bankruptcy and start all over again. No accountability for the mess she created. No responsibility in repaying the loss. I was relieved to at least hear that you can't declare bankruptcy on student loans. There is no way out of that. Bankruptcy may make her life easier but it makes mine harder because someone has to eat that lost money. Now my insurance rates go up and so on because the companies have to cover their losses. Why do people think they are entitled to buy things they don't have money for and then escape the responsibility of paying for it?
I think there needs to be stricter rules on who can get credit cards. At first glance it would appear that it is a person's right to make bad financial decisions and get themselves into trouble. The problem is that there are so many irresponsible people, greedy people, unethical people, and people poorly educated in basic finances that they have now ruined our whole economy. The American dream is earned by hard work, integrity and honesty. The American dream is not handed out for free.
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2 comments:
Wow. i am glad your name is not Jesus or else we would all be going to HELL. People do make mistakes and they should be allowed to make it better. you know. The point is, you learn from your mistakes.
I agree that people should be allowed to "make it better." That means they should take Responsibility for their mistakes and make it right. They work extra hours, pick up an extra job, etc to pay off the expenses they incurred from bad choices. Making it better is not walking away from the debt. How is a lesson learned from that? If it is that easy to rack up debt then just walk away, what will prevent her from doing it again? I would think you would be angry as this is taking money from your paycheck too.
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