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I reckon I'm a bum who had nothing forever.

The gubmint and all my debtors got to split the proceeds after they sold my beat-up used car. They got pennies on the dollar and, like Donald Trump, I walked free.

We're both living our best lives in sunny Florida!

That's what bankruptcy is for: When you are broke and have no prospects for ever being able to pay, it's time for Chapter 7 so everybody can get on with their lives. I wonder how much they got for your car versus how much they had to pay for your other mobility devices? Bet they made a bad deal on that one!

The Republicans overhauled the bankruptcy thing a couple of years ago. You can still go bankrupt but you cannot bankrupt on debts owed the government or the banks. This may have changed but I don't think so. This is why, for instance, student debts have not been taken care of in bankruptcy.

Basically, bankruptcy is no longer functional.

About 40% of people who file for bankruptcy DO get their student loan debt reduced or eliminated. (But few actually do file for bankruptcy.) What you need to do is to prove that paying the loans would cause undue hardship to you and any dependents, and your financial situation is unlikely to improve. An example would be a single mother of four, with a crappy job, who would become homeless if she had to make the loan payments. This applies to both federal and private loans.

I was wrong although student debt is mentioned as not dischargable except in the exclusion you mentioned.

One of the main problems with these student loans is that advantage is taken of 18/19 year old kids who have no idea what they are doing. Yesterday I saw a young girl, with a proud degree in, if I remember correctly, English, AND a two-hundred thousand dollar education loan. She is well and truly screwed, for the rest of her life! Then, again, perhaps not as its likely she couldn't even pay the interest.

I have always thought that student loans should only be used after consultation with somebody who understands what is going on.

I don't think you understand what is going on.

Most Boomers could pay for a four-year education with 361 hours work at minimum wage. Today they would have to work 4,445 hours to do that.

And apparently you think we don't need anyone to have a worthless degree in English. Probably music and art and international studies are worthless too. I'll bet there are a thousand other different college majors that you would consider worthless.

A lifetime of debt to pursue worthless knowledge...? If they want to know something...they should just ask you and save all that money on education.

Bankruptcy worked great for me!

I've never tried to re-establish my credit though. I live within my meager means and owe nothing to anyone. Except for my ex-wife...I owe her a lot, but she gets my house when I die.

My debt was business-related credit card debt. They won't take your house, but they won't make your mortgage go away either. My house was paid for. If you have payments on a car you keep the car and the payments. My custom off-road Jeep was paid for, so they took it.

Bastards.

In an effort to make you feel better a little story. When I had my debt collection agency I used to buy credit card debt. This was really great. They sold off the debt for approximately 10% of the debt. They hadn't even contacted the debtors to pay! You could have, had you known, setup a debt collection business, then buy back your debt for 10%! The only problem was that it would be unlikely your debt would be in the debt you bought.

Interesting bit of knowledge in case you have to negotiate with a credit card company. Offer them 20% and they get double what they would have received by selling the debt. Or offer the collection agency 20% and they make 100% profit for zero work at all. It's good to know people's breakeven point.

My neighbor was having some trouble with the guys putting in a fence for him. One of the guys was a hot-head and ready to walk when there was a misunderstanding. His issue was about getting paid for the mistake. What he did not understand was it was never about the money for the neighbor. It was about getting the fence he wanted. It was around $1800 they spent for fence panels and posts that were too short. So my neighbor and his wife had a quick conference, and offered the fence contractors $2500 for the misunderstanding. Suddenly everything was fine. It really pays to try to understand what people need, versus what they care little about.

And yes: Every student loan application process should include a counseling session with a consumer advocate who points out obvious problems like paying back $200,000 with an English degree. Expensive private colleges used to be just for the rich kids. That's still a useful notion. That's why we have state colleges and universities, with in-state tuition deals, and occupational loan forgiveness programs. I'm not saying Art, Music, English, etc. education is useless. I'm just saying 18 year olds need to know their earning prospects before committing to such huge loans. Many of them would lead much better lives studying something like air conditioning repair and installation at a junior college or public trade school, making a decent living, and pursuing their Art, Music, or Writing interests in their copious spare time. Counting on a high-paying career in one of those fields is like retirement planning by buying lottery tickets.

Instead they wind up with a crappy 9-5 job doing something totally unrelated to their degree, and working a second job that's even worse to try paying the interest on their loans.

Years ago I knew a kid graduating from high school. I asked him what he was going to do. He said he was going to be trained to be a power line worker. I saw him a couple of years later and asked if he did it and if he was making enough money. This was in the 80's or 90's and he was making over 100,000 a year!

Smart kid!

Our high school used to have classes for kids that wanted to be electricians, carpenters, mechanics and plumbers. All these classes were supported the the appropriate union and they all got jobs. Now, I think, they are down to carpenters. They also used to build a house every year and then auction it off. That too has stopped. I have no idea why. I once asked but could never really get a good answer.

Now everybody seems to be headed to college. We have a local college. They used to teach advanced mechanics (for cars) and a lot of other stuff. Now they have gone to 4 years, dumped most of the trades stuff, except when it comes to nurses. Have also wondered about that one. I have always thought that schools teaching
trades was a really good thing. Now, when I need a plumber, for instance, I have one hell of a time finding one that's available because there are not that many anymore.