Trifecta!!! A Banner Year for the Debt-Laden!!!

The Trifecta! What a Banner Year for the Debt-Laden!


The first ingredient in our Witch’s brew for the poor is.......OIL PRICES! Through the roof. Oil companies making RECORD PROFITS when prices are at all-time highs. They don’t feel our pain.....they cause it. There is no incentive for them to create more supply. Why increase supply when profits are at record numbers? The big oil conglomerates can close 58 refineries and can not build a new refinery in this county for twenty years and still hide behind the “free market” for the ultimate justification for the pillaging of our society in search of profits. And who do gas prices disproportionately affect? The poor. Gas takes a bigger percentage of their income that those who are better off.

The second ingredient is the Increase in Personal Debt. Since the rise of the recent oil crunch, personal debt has increased drastically. In fact, the personal debt of our country rose over 2% in October alone! Imagine that.....2% in one month. Astounding. What’s going on? At least in part it is due to the increase in gas prices. When gas hit over $3.00 per gallon, people still had to drive. The solution? Throw the gas on a credit card and worry about it later. Well, it turns out that there were more delinquencies in credit card payments in November than ever before.

The final ingredient in our mix? Let’s change the bankruptcy laws! Trifecta!

The same guys who are out there hawking their credit card services and charging people up to 28% interest are the guys who lobby Congress for “protection” from all the “deadbeats.” Congress, rather than telling the credit card companies to quit offering credit to poor risks, agrees and makes it tougher to file bankruptcies. Now the people saddled with debt have to go to credit counseling for six months prior to filing. In addition, the legal fees for filing for bankruptcy just got a lot more expensive due to the recent changes to the law. A double whammy for the debt laden.

Listen, am I saying that it’s OK to try to weasel out of your legitimate debts? No. Not at all. But I have seen widows who have incomes of $900 per month that have credit card debt in excess of $70,000 and who receive new card offers almost every day! They have to get new cards to pay the minimum balances on the old cards! Dogs are sent credit card offers! The credit card companies have to share some of the blame and shouldn’t be the ones to go crying to Congress. Oh well, they got what they want. More chances to collect their 28% interest from the poor guy who can’t even afford credit counseling or who is not reliable enough to complete six months of credit counseling.

Come on, guys. This sounds more like “three strikes and you’re out.” Maybe it is just a weird, random convergence. But planned or not, the impact of these things has and is going to continue to have a profound impact on the poor of our society.

Blawgerman