According to this article from NY Times:
When Congress agreed this spring to tighten the bankruptcy laws and crack down on consumers who took on debt irresponsibly, no one had the victims of Hurricane Katrina in mind.
But four weeks after New Orleans flooded and tens of thousands of other residents of the Gulf Coast also lost their homes and livelihoods, a stricter new personal bankruptcy law scheduled to take effect on Oct. 17 is likely to deliver another blow to those dislocated by the storm.
The law was intended to keep individuals from taking on debts they had no intention of paying off. But many once-solvent Katrina victims are likely to be caught up in the net intended to catch deadbeats.
As readers of this blog know, I already brought up those issues about a month ago.
The issue that raises is say that Congress and the President didn't know there would be Hurricane Katrina. Let's give them that.
Is it unfathomable for Congress to actually think ahead and say maybe there would be some (unforseen) tragedy that would screw thousands of people and not allow them to declare bankruptcy? You mean, that never came up during the debate? Why should it. Because this Administration and the conservative point of view basically has the philosophy that you are POOR and F&CKED because that is your lot in life. Some sort of Kapitalistic Karma.
Of course the issue now is that take the people who have no choice but to declare bankruptcy on a mini-scale. Say persoanl tragedies beyond their control, even call them acts of God. Now they still would be screwed and unable to declare bankruptcy. But their plights would go unnoticed -- and only in some alternative universe would there be an article in NY Times some three years from now about people who are forever in debt. At least Katrina will bring these things to light. But the greater issue and one that should make anyone furious is that sometimes things happen beyond our control that totally ruin our lives and the American system of letting people start over has worked at least for this past hundred years -- if not more -- but this current administration -- (and the one that will run in 2008) basically wants an idea to go back to debtors prison. That once you are f*cked, you are f*cked for life-- and so are your children. Who do you think will be paying for this? Should children whose parents have to carry around these monster debts their entires lives suffer.
The bankruptcy revision is basically to stop scofflaws and those people -- any people -- who abuse the system should be punished. Any law has people who skirt around the law to utilize their benefit. But the issue of any government is who benefits and suffers the most. In this case, it will be the banks, who will get paid many times over (as smarter people than me can tell you). Our future is owing money to a corporation.
These laws are unfeeling and why did an actual and literal huuricane have to come in and expose the calamties of government?
And again to make things easy to understand. Imagine that $5,000 loan you have would never go away. Well, how are you going to pay it when you don't have a job, because your town is gone and you have no job and you have to feed your kids, so you have to borrow to make the payments -- and it will never end.
America has stopped being the nation of second chances.
Where you are born and who are your parents will determine everything.
We have become what our original founding fathers fought against, a class nation.
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