Another bi-partisan social disaster based on bullshit

I'm a humble person, so I accept my greatness graciously. Still it amazes me how many dumbshits there are, and how you all fall for marketing slogans that are nothing more than morsels of bullshit spoonfed to you by people who don't really care about you.

The social disaster I'm referring to is the upcoming bankruptcy reform. The worst part about it is that the rules do need to be reformed to protect some creditors. When the rules were reformed in 1978, they swang the pendulum too far in favor of debtors. There have been some minor reforms since, but nothing this significant. This legislation swings the pendulum too far the other way.

Under the current law, a person can file bankruptcy, which a trustee reviews for assets that exceed exemption limitations. Those assets are then liquidated to pay dividends to unsecured creditors. An asset which is collateral on a loan must be paid for, or surrendered to the creditor that holds a security interest in the asset. The trustee also peruses secured assets for equity that can be used to pay unsecured creditors.

The result of the current law is that people who owe a lot of money on credit cards and other unsecured debts, and who don't have much in the way of assets, benefit the most from bankruptcy. Many of these people could repay a portion of their debts, but most don't.

The bullshit they fed you was that it costs us all a lot of money. It makes sense, unless you sift the fluff out. In reality, costs of credit are extremely low, credit is readily available, and lending institutions are booming. Price, supply, and profits are key economic considerations when considering social reform. This reform will not affect price or supply substantially. It will, however, increase profits.

It takes a stupid sonofabitch to look at all the high interest rate credit resources, and not attribute a major part of the proliferation of bankruptcy on those hundreds of thousands of lenders that market their credit cards or accept a check drawn on a person's next paycheck at an interest rate of 400%. These fuckers don't deserve protection, but they will be the biggest beneficiaries of this reform.

While you may not have much compassion for the stupid bastards that should know they can't afford more credit if they can't live on what they earn, another group of society that will suffer from this reform are those who owe money on medical bills. In addition to companies that are turning record profits screwing dumbshits foolish enough to do business with them, the other big beneficiaries of reform will be another industry that is pretty flush: hospitals and doctors.

The absolute biggest wad of bullshit that you dumbshits swallowed was that this will only affect those with above average incomes. First of all, it isn't above average - it's above median income. If you don't know the difference, you probably didn't pay enough attention in sixth grade math, so I'll give you an example in hopes that your feeble mind can grasp a fairly simple concept:

You have ten people. In total they make $400,000. The average income is $40,000 per year ($400,000/10=$40,000). An above average income would be one in excess of $40,000.

One of them makes $150,000 per year. One makes $75,000 per year. One makes $50,000 per year. One makes $25,000 per year. Two make $20,000 per year. The other four make $15,000 per year. The median income is $20,000 per year (four people earn more than $20,000, and four earn less than $20,000). An above median income is one in excess of $20,000.

Now imagine where the median line might end up if we toss in a few people earning millions of dollars per year, and a whole bunch of minimum wage workers. (If your imagination is mired in the bog of mediocrity, it will be way lower than the average income.)

So now that we've established that it affects half the working class, and not just the 20-25% that earn above average income, we can get to why this will be a social disaster. This is the segment of society that is most heavily marketed, most likely to be approved for credit they can't afford, and most able to conceal debt problems until those problems are totally out of control. In other words, this is the segment of society most vulnerable to predatory lending practices. These predators, under the old law, did not benefit from collection practices that would compel a person to file bankruptcy. Now they will. There will be no test for them to prove that they made the loan decision based on loan factors. The test is solely for the consumer.

Even though Bush signed the bill that Clinton vetoed, it's not as partisan as that would indicate. It passed 75-24 in the Senate, and 302-126 in the House. That's bi-partisan. It makes me sick that so many of you dumbshits will still vote for one of the two major parties, mostly to keep the other assholes out of office.

That's my take.