The Case for Walking Away

This is beyond bad advice. The current bankruptcy code requires a six month consumer credit counseling course, designed specifically to teach debtors how not to find themselves in financial peril. The author here completely misses the point. She suggests bankruptcy as a first response rather than as a last resort. The publisher, however, is mostly to blame for this irresponsbile piece of journalism.

IF YOU HAVE "TOO LITTLE MONEY"THEN DONT BUY ON CREDIT!!!!

no-win-situation, no to mention that we live in a type o economy that depends heavily on credit to operate. Even big companies, with their big-shot financial advisors, lawyers, and accounts aren't debt-free. Without debt, very few could buy houses or much of anything that is on the market. The incentive for invention and development would be weaker. People who suggest the no debt route aren't doing capitalism any favors. As a matter of fact, the advice is anti-capitalistic.

7thinline...no my head has not been in the sand...it, along with the rest of mu body has been at work 6 days a week,10-12 hours a day! As for a devestating accident...In some cases bankrupcy is appropriate. however, if you live within your means and only charge things you can pay for in a timely fashion making sure to get insurance that covers you in event of death or disability then those rare exception are..well... rare. As to not reproducing...If you cannot care for the needs of a child then you should refrain!

Response to Scott: We left England and came to this country to escape religious persecution and financial persecution. In England they had debtors prisons and if someone could not pay they took the royals side and tossed them in prison until they could pay. Big joke because if you are in jail you can not work off a debt. Please don't suggest we become the very thing that our forefathers left behind on a very dangerous journey across seas to found this great country. Doesn't anyone remember the Boston Tea Party from history class and the protest against taxation? We are letting our government become what we fought a revolution not to ever be.

I can't believe this lady has the gaul to write this crap!! This is terrible and she should be ashamed. Somebody needs to sit her down and explain personal respsonsibility to her. Her boss needs to be fired for letting her write this. Guess who pays when people don't take care of their obligatons.....what an idiot!!

kick21...simple: pay 200 a month insurance and if you cant then dont reproduce...if you had insurance then the hospital bills would not be a problem...if you did not have insurance then dont reproduce...your ex would not be after you had you chose one of these options

To reality check161: Who are you to pass judgement on a very large population of people for whom bankruptcy is their only option? You assume that everyone is out there "living beyond their means" and being irresponsible. You don't know anything! What about the people who have an illness or accident devastate their lives and wipe them out financially? Or how about the people who are deeply effected by the rise in fuel prices, truck drivers for example - who can't work without fuel and can't pay their bills without working? And it's so easy to get a job, isn't it??? You must have had your head in the sand these past few years, because you know absolutely nothing about real life. Keep your self-righteous and ignorant opinions to yourself. There's a reason that professionals, including Harvard professors, are represented in this article and not people like you. And telling people not to reproduce in order to live within their means?? What I'd like to say to that comment would not get printed.

try having your wife lose her job then have open heart surgery, then six months later back surgery then lose her job again then have a ex wife take you to court again for nothing she withdrew the motion at the court date for the sixth time so with doctor bills and attorney bills and low income your just screwed and have no choice so people need to get real the law is there for a reason

There are people out there who were sucked into loans they could not affored from day one. Predatory lending ... that is what that's called. The hardest thing that anyone can do in life is to make a decision to walk away from everything that they have worked for in their lives .... it is a decision some have a hard time grasping but, there are times in life when it is unavoidable ... illness, lay off, PREDATORY LENDING when people are set up to fail (why was this allowed to occur in the first place?) My 20-something kid is suffering because she and her husband were given a mortgage with a 48% debt ratio ... I, as a parent, didn't know this until after the fact because had I know I would have stopped this from occurring. Now, 2 years later, and after borrowing money numerous times to make ends meet, they have to walk away. There's no choice for them. They simply cannot afford it and couldn't from the very first day they obtained that loan. They were set up to fail and the lender was allowed to do it. So, before anyone condemns people by saying step up to your obligations I say that lenders must now face the reality of their choice to lend money to people knowing full well it could not be paid back because of debt ratios that were allowed. The banks, when lending this money to people who should never have gotten the loans, didn't know that the housing market was going to crash ... what goes around eventually comes around! Banks are stuck with houses that more money is owed then the home is worth. I certainly hope our legislators regulate the lending industry the way it should have been regulated the past 20 years to ensure that this won't ever happen to our economy again.

Wow, what an article (sarcasm). Not only is this unethical advice... it's plain ol' immoral. I guess the facts surrounding how a lot of these Americans got into their bind means nothing. Amazing...

This article encourages exactly the wrong type of behavior. People just need to WAKE UP and realize that they can't have everything they want and when times arelean they have to cut back... Hedonistic Americans never want to embrace reality

http://www.beyondthemargin.net/2008/06/life-as-slave.html

Wow, what an article (sarcasm)... Not only is this bad advice, it's unethical and immoral.

This article encourages exactly the wrong type of behavior. People just need to WAKE UP and realize that they can't have everything they want and when times arelean they have to cut back... Hedonistic Americans never want to embrace reality

http://www.beyondthemargin.net/2008/06/life-as-slave.html

I cannot imagine what inspires someone to write an article like this. The constant need to pick up that latest gadget or the impression that every room needs a flat panel television should be warning signs that we are spending out of control. The credit card companies are not to blame. I would point the finger directly at our education system that allows someone to graduate without the knowledge to balance a checkbook.