Bankruptcy is nothing new in this country. The Bankruptcy Act was first passed by Congress in the 1800s, and was based upon the Old Testament concept that debts should be forgiven every seven years. I first started seeing people with large credit card debt in the late 80s. By then, any person with a job was being given large lines of credit by banks issuing Visa and MasterCard. Humans get addicted to various things.
Addictions are hard to overcome.
Before long, Big Credit became the financier of all human addictions. I was shocked the first time I saw a client with six-figure debt run up by gambling in Vegas. Now when another day trader comes in with six-figure credit card debt, I am not surprised. While noteworthy and obvious, these types of cases are the exception more than 98 percent of my clients are working people who got into debt over their heads. They experienced a serious illness or divorce, and used credit cards to pay essentials like food and rent.