Posted by
Mick O. on Thursday, January 31, 2008 11:43:59 AM
Having gone through bankruptcy once in my younger days, I now see the folly of that decision. Although it is LEGAL, it is not right. As with many laws in the United States, just because a majority of senators and congressmen agreed that debt can be forgiven under certain conditions, morally it is just not right.
This is one of those cases where the law benefitted me, but even so, it should not be allowed. Take for instance the current debt counseling businesses that have sprung up on the Internet. Here's the problem. People get to pay pennies on the dollar for purchases they had no business making. What's more, by forgiving the debt, they will probably go out and do it again. Why? Because they learned nothing from the experience of living within their means. I don't have the numbers, I would bet that the number of repeat offenders is quite high! After all, once people catch on to how they can fulfill their desires for that big screen television or other expensive items and not have to pay for them, why wouldn't they think they could do it again? I would have!
As with easy abortions that teach kids not to be careful, but that their mistake can be easily fixed, so does debt forgiveness teach people that you can buy whatever you want whenever you want it and if you mess up... all is forgiven! Start over. Clean slate. Problem is, nothing was learned from the experience other than... Oops!
Now that I see so many debt relief commercials on television and in my SPAM folder, my guess is that the problem is growing. What people need to learn how to do is pay for the things that they buy. PERIOD! No economic stimulus package can fix that.