Are you acquainted with our state's stringent usury laws?

Personal bankruptcy laws are a double-edged sword; while they provide a legitimate way out of desperate financial situations to individuals facing bad luck or genuinely poor business decisions, they also provide an escape clause to debtors who engage in irresponsible spending, thereby removing a disincentive for risky behavior. I'm of the opinion that the positive social benefits outweigh the possible abuses, as most liberals are about the various social safety nets we (used to) have in place in this country.

Last year (or maybe earlier this year), the Republican majority was able to push through changes to federal bankruptcy laws that make it more difficult for individuals to file for bankruptcy (I don't believe that any corresponding changes were made to corporate bankruptcy laws, which is, you know, shocking). This was a basically a freebie to the credit card industry–and yes, the credit card industry directly employs two-thirds of my immediate family, so I understand that I'm part of the problem. Or something.

The tougher personal bankruptcy laws are scheduled to go into effect October 17. The Times reports that those people who were effected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will almost certainly not have time to file for personal bankruptcy (which needs to be done in their home town with accompanying paperwork) before the new laws go into effect. Furthermore, the full economic effect of a disaster like a hurricane often reaches it's peak two to three years after the disaster, so those people whose lives were destroyed by the storm will most likely need to file years after the new laws are in place.

Bush rightfully received criticism for his delay in even acknowledging the destruction that Katrina wrought, and for nepotistic appointments of unqualified administrators to critical disaster-response posts. It's harder for people to get outraged about a more abstract connection like the one between Katrina/Rita recovery and stricter personal bankruptcy laws, but it just amounts to more indifference to human suffering on the part of this administration.

Comments

  1. RichSeptember 28, 2005

    Wow, this is a lot of content to take in in two days.

    To segue from bankruptcy to another instance of this republican regime, is anyone else worried about the new rumblings at increasing federal power? I read about Bush's suggestion that we give the federal government power to send the military into states that haven't requested its assistance when "major natural disasters" occur. This seems like another step towards a totalitarian state. Even in Rome, the republic had rules against bringing legions into Italy to prevent military dictatorship (Sulla and Ceaser violated this rule). Also, I heard rumblings on an unnamed sydicated fox show about the federal government's proposal to pay churches back for their voluntary assistance during the hurricane. Not to mention the constitutional problems with this proposal, this kind of charity payback scheme defeats the purpose of having charities and making donations to them in the first place. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

    Anywho, just wanted to mention Rome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 29, 2008

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 29, 2008

    I can't believe this.I do mention the constitutional problems with this proposal.
    -------------
    Siva

    www.shepelskylaw.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beep Beep Beep Beep, Yeah!

Cars are scary. They're big steel machines of doom. I do not trust that a car I operate won't just stop working as a drive it. I fear running over nails. I fear psycho people in lanes next to me losing their minds and making sharp turns of their steering wheels to crash into me...for no reason. No one (aside from Jeff) at all understands my fear of driving. Not just, "driving at night is a little creepy." We're talking nightmares. Every bad dream I have that I can remember involves me operating a vehicle careening out of control. Me driving a vehicle without brakes. Having to merge into traffic and not being able to maneuver the steering wheel. I drove a bit growing up (living in a Florida suburb, you kind of had to), but unlike the majority of my friends, I didn't have my own car. So I borrowed my parents' cars when necessary, to drive to and from my house and my buddies' houses, the mall, Borders, Friday's, and back home. I was terrified of chang...
Read more

In which I blog again, however briefly

Blogging has been sporadic at best (and postively tubercular at worst) throughout the past weeks as I haven't had much of an Internet connection. Now I do have much of an Internet connection, but only because I am at Ryan and Sarahs's home in Boston for the weekend, and they were kind enough to have a cable modem that doesn't suck. I've posted some nerd-phone photos of my trip on the Flickr side of things, and the basic gist is that I'm having a nice time with two of my favourite people. If anyone out there happens to work for Verizon and would like to set me up for DSL back in Brooklyn, I think I'm ready.
Read more

The Colorless Wonder

The oddest thing that I’ve gathered about Jeff (so far…I’m assuming there’s a lot more there) is that he is without any distinct color. No, I’m not talking about his colorBLINDness and color CLUELESSness, although that’s fascinating. (He really doesn’t know his colors. Try him some time. I said “chartreuse” or “magenta” the other day and he was all, “how can you possibly know what those mean!?!”) Jeff’s name, when it pops up in my mind or in my e-mail Inbox, does not take on a color of its own. And that’s weird for me. Because I spent the better part of my only-child-dom with either a book or my Crayola box of 64, when I see letters or numbers, my brain automatically links them with a distinct color. (This is, of course, a self-diagnosis.) The experts call this “condition” synesthesia . I don’t think I have the full-blown deal. Hardcore folks look at a page of text and see a rainbow in front of their eyes. Other sysenthites see colors when they hear certain tones, or vice versa. It’s a...
Read more