I have been a reader of kos for a few months now but only just started to post. I enjoy the political analysis and the exposure to so many facts. Certainly better news than the "news". This kind of analysis is not my strong point. I am more of a people person, concerned with living in a world in which people are treated fairly and generously.
I have also never been politically active. While I have strong feelings about the state and stance of politics, I have always left it up to others to drive my points home for me. I am mostly a loner in that way. That is, until about the middle of GWBs first term. The alarm bells began to ring and have only grown louder with each bit of news from that evil nexus. I thought that people would easily see through this buffoon and politics would find its' muddled center again. Instead, the insanity gained steam, and to my horror I am confronted with another four years of dangerous politics. What is happening now could undo, for my lifetime, the compassionate gains of the last forty years.
The rhetoric I have heard around the bankruptcy legislation curdles my blood. A debt is a debt is a debt they are saying. Catastrophic medical bills? Well, it is your debt after all. You should have had better health insurance. Had health insurance, but lost it because you couldn't keep that demanding job while you went through chemo? Well, that's sad, but a debt is a debt. After all, it's only fair that the people who extended you the credit are paid what they are owed. 200k, 300k, more? Well, this is the ownership society where you alone own all your debts. It's not my duty to help you out with tax dollars to keep you safe and healthy and it's certainly not the duty of the creditor. Whose duty is it? Why yours, of course. Dying of AIDS? Well, you'll be dead soon and those creditors won't be able to go after you, so stop your whining. Not totally destitute? Well, sell your house, you scoundrel.
You were stupid enough to sign up for a credit card with a teaser rate designed to suck you in, then once you had charged up several thousand dollars, BAM! The rate goes up to 28%. No matter that you never entered a contract for credit at usury rates, the credit card companies can do whatever they want and you have no leg to stand on. I believe the laws against the charging of usury rates were eliminated in most states several years ago. It's still your debt, interest and all. There are cards out there now that automatically raise your interest rate to obscene levels not if you are late on a payment to them, but if you are late on a payment to ANOTHER creditor.
I recently bought a house. Almost as soon as I took possession, I started being bombarded by offers to take out another loan for the equity I already had. Refinance! Lower my rates with an interest-only loan! Money is just there waiting! These offers often come in deceptively official looking packaging. I just got one the other day that looked like an IRS refund envelope. It told me how I could refinance with no fees, pull out 50K and still lower my payment by nearly half! I am no financial wizard, I just assume these people are not looking out for my best interests and shred the damned things. My paper shredder has been very busy. I signed up for the do not call list, but still my home phone is bombarded with solicitations. I use my cell phone for my main communications, but keep a landline for the dsl service. It's like spam the number of calls I get.
And speaking of spam, now there are zombies, hijacked computers, automatic whatevers pumping out offers to rid you of your money 24/7. I have a good isp that is able to filter this stuff out, but I know plenty of people who are fairly naïve about this and who daily have to wade through greater and greater magnitudes of this stuff in order to find their legitimate email. People click on this stuff at an amazing rate.
That example I gave above about the credit card offer for easy credit at a teaser rate? This happened to an artist friend of mine. He's a sweet guy but not at all savvy. Being the artist that he is, he does not have a steady job or steady source of income. He is often on the streets near the end of the month, selling artwork to meet the rent. A couple of years ago one of these places offered him a card with a modest limit. He liked the idea and thought he could build credit by using the card responsibly and always paying on time.
Being the artist that he is, he ran up higher bills than was prudent in order to finance some of his artworks. He does large-scale installations with a political bent. These are not really salable kinds of art. He tries to get institutions to help finance these things but it doesn't always happen or it doesn't happen on schedule. Still, each month he made the minimum payment on time.
One day, much to his horror, he received notice that his interest rate was changing from 6% to 31%! Why? Because this scum-sucking credit card company said it was in the agreement that they could change the rate without notice. Indeed it was; in about 4 point type. Not being a savvy, experienced user of credit, he didn't know to go over all offers with an attorney present.
He could not pay off such a debt and was forced to default. These people had steadily raised his credit limit to ten thousand dollars over the course of two years. My friend used that line of credit. His yearly income is probably less than that.
Is it all my friend's fault? Should my friend be held to the fire to pay these people?
I don't think the compassion for bankruptcy protection should be extended only to the extreme and unavoidable circumstances such as catastrophic illness or injury (the repugs would not even allow that!!), but also as a protection against the reality of this society in which the world of creditors sees the populace as marks rather than as customers.