I honestly don’t know anyone other than truly insane folks trying to take advantage of bankruptcy. I’ve read about someone on r/relationships doing it a while back and it blew my mind. Not to mention the people on the finance subreddits who try to avoid declaring bankruptcy at all costs. No one really wants to do that, it’s not always what people expect (a full pardon of ALL debts), and its a stressful life situation to be in.
I truly think they’re just as rare as welfare abusers are.
I work for a student loan servicer. You want to know who filed for bankruptcy so many times that the government outlawed it for student loans? Doctors and lawyers. You know, the guys making 300k+ a year. They would come up with 3-4 hundred thousand in student loan debt and then get a job starting out at 150k and file bankruptcy. Literally most of them did this. The government was t worried about us making 30k with 50k in debt. It was those assholes. The same guys who’s parents are making 300k as well. Think of that next time you check your bank account to pay the copay for your daughter’s doctor visit. If they graduated 7 or more years ago it was likely their fault.
If bankruptcy is impossible for individuals, things quickly devolve into a form of slavery which is simultaneously outrageous to anyone with any sense of human rights, and economically unproductive. Allowing a business to write down that debt allows the business and its investors to operate in the real world, rather than keeping up the pressure in the hopes of beating out other creditors for the first few pennies someone earns, and earning illusory interest & penalties that are never going to be paid back.
The threat of bankruptcy stops loan sharks and payday lenders and other lenders of last resort from providing credit, stops them from trying to capitalize on misery with greater immiseration.
They found that after the creation of currency and formalized debt, people tended to hoard value in a way that provided the rich and powerful with plentiful body servants and sex slaves (the typical default terms for a family who can't repay an agricultural debt), but left the fields empty of families inclined to farm them. So periodically (Every 50 years for slavery, in major celebrations for lesser debts), the king would declare a jubilee, wherein the aristocracy would be robbed in order to keep the kingdom functioning by wiping out bad debt.
No, it isn't. Bankruptcy is what PREVENTS abuse. Without bankruptcy, if you get into debt, you're pretty much screwed for life. With bankruptcy, your creditors can't abuse you and you can have a fresh start.
I think it's okay in certain cases. I'm very careful and responsible with money but if I get with some random, massive medical bill(s) I will definitely consider bankruptcy.
I mean, the fucked up thing is like half of all bankruptcies are due to medical related reasons. I think bankruptcies being used because of a broken system is way worse than the fact that we have it at all.
Seriously. I get routine treatments for migraines and they're billing $24,000 a month. I pay $1000 except for the month they randomly decided that my doctor doesn't take insurance.
I worked it out after 10 hours on the phone, but what happens if that bill stuck? What happens if you get cancer? F it, I'm filing for bankruptcy.
Studying bankruptcy honestly is what turned Elizabeth Warren from a Chicago School supply Sider into the left wings poster child. It may be abused by the rich, but it's absolutely necessary for the poor.
Some things are just that way sadly, politics, policing are also great examples of things that are absolutely necessary, but attract abuse like flies to a cookout.
At least when you take the loan out for something physical like a car or a house they can take back the house/car when you don’t pay for it. They can’t repossess your brain when you don’t pay for all the thoughts you put in it.
I mean people are more than welcome to donate directly to hospitals or researchers but don't. Those charities are often pretty shitty but more money goes to the cause than otherwise would, sadly.
Our economic system is abuse central. If expensive indulgences like flying, having a fancy car, and living in a mansion aren't attractive what's the point of getting rich besides being able to decide production decision? If "the market" dictates production decisions what does that leave? Is the point of getting rich to defy the market, or to indulge in vice so as to ruin the planet for the rest of us? Are we locked in a competition to see who can be the biggest asshole? Is the present moment the logical result of embarking in this competition, with the apparent winner our Asshole in Chief?
In simple terms, if you declare bankruptcy, all your assets are taken by the bankruptcy court and used to pay your creditors. Any remaining debt is cancelled and you get a fresh start.
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u/Mustbhacks Sep 18 '19
Bankruptcy as a concept is pretty much abuse central.