Moral Bankruptcy

The Senate has just passed one of the nastier bills I've seen. If enacted (and the House is almost certain to pass it), the bill will make it harder for people to use bankruptcy to avoid credit card debt. Now as someone who generally favors personal responsibility, I don't necessarily have a problem with asking folks to pay back expenses that they have chosen to incur. If you're stupid enough not to realize that using a credit card is not the same as printing money, well then, that's your own fault.

But when much of the debt is due to usurious interest rates, as high as 40% per year, I'm bothered. And when the entities that are benefiting from the bill are those same credit card companies that assess that interest rate, and that have been handing out credit cards like candy at Halloween for all these years, I'm angered. And when certain kinds of debts and assets that might affect the wealthy aren't affected by this bill (e.g., expensive houses are protected from creditors), I'm outraged. And when the Senate voted down an amendment to exempt certain kinds of debt, such as that incurred due to failure to receive alimony or child support, or both (in other words, debt that quite literally is someone else's fault), I'm not sure there are strong enough words to express how pissed off I am.

You would think that there might be a trade-off for the credit card companies -- we want to pursue this debt, and in exchange we agree that interest rates should never exceed 18% -- but no need thanks to their friends in Congress. You would think that members of Congress would treat all debt (and assets) equally, instead of being more harsh on the debt most likely to affect the poor, but apparently not. Sadly, all of the Republicans and a substantial minority of the Democrats voted in favor of this bill (though some who voted for it also voted for changes that might have improved it) -- the vote was 74-25. Isn't it nice to know that we have a Congress that's determined to protect the needs of the wealthy, and of corporations against those terrible poor people?

America -- Land of the Fees, Home of the Brazen