In Support of Bankruptcy

A good friend from Islip called me late last night. We talked about a number of topics including her recent divorce. Because her husband absconded with the family business (more information on that later – seems like a good topic for my blog), she is left with no money and is forced with a possible personal bankruptcy.

I realize that there is a lot of talk about bankruptcy and bailout lately. I am considering that ‘too big to fail’ – as far as policy by the government – is really not that valid. Big or small, bad things happen to good people and firms. As far as firms go, it is normally bad decisions by the executives that leads to failure (impending bankruptcy). With people, it’s bad timing, unlucky events (getting laid off, divorce, et al.) or bad decisions (buying the BMW or larger than needed house) that lead to failure.

I see and hear about the government bailing out firms. But there’s no bailout for the people individually (I wouldn’t call the tiny tax credits from Obama and crew as a bailout). It seems unfair to bail out very large companies and not bail out small companies. If smaller companies are bailed out, why not proprietors of small retail shops and so forth? Why not the individual?

I guess nobody can be personally responsible for their own actions (even if it’s an executive at a large company). Let’s just spread the blame and bailout the larger entities first. If they end up laying off people (which they will and have anyway), then the individuals that worked for them are just plain sh** out of luck.

Seems fair to me. Oh, that reminds me! I saw a great bumper sticker the other day: “Obamanation: Let’s be Poor Together!”