On Suze Orman's Show Last Night

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.