Bankruptcy Filings Soar In Advance of New Law

This Washington Post article by Caroline Mayer covers the dramatic increase in bankruptcy filings in recent weeks. I think it's outrageous how many people file in this country on a normal basis, and it's all the more aggravating to think of those who are seeking to get in on a supposedly good thing before it's not so good anymore. The Post takes a nice feel-good stance on the issue. They mainly discuss the plight of hurricane victims who need to file. Who wouldn't be sympathetic to that? Although perhaps the example used of the Lee family wasn't the best. The husband made $100,000 a year, but now his salary is cut in half (still a lot more than many other hurricane victims ever made, I'm sure). The wife says of their pre-hurricane budget, "We had never missed a payment and were always on time with our bills, but we couldn't afford for anything to go wrong."

And that is a big problem. Too many people in this country cannot afford for anything to go wrong. If you're making minimum wage I can understand that, but $100,000 a year? Come on! There should be plenty of room for savings in a budget like that. But in our must-have-it-all-now culture everyone feels that they must have a big new house, new cars, fancy vacations, lots of cable channels, and the freedom to eat out all the time. Now, of course, I do not want to judge the Lee family -- it's quite possible that they had big medical expenses or something else that ate up most of that salary. However, I wonder why Mayer chose them for her article.