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92 Comments
- badqat, on 10/27/2009, -4/+56Because medical bills are things we all love to shop for?
- eastwood24, on 10/27/2009, -3/+41Consumer bankruptcies totaled 1,046,449 filings through the first nine months of 2009, a 41% increase since 2008. While some people did indeed live way beyond there means, the majority of those that have filed bankruptcy has been due to medical bills. This is a sad state of affairs.
- inactive, on 10/27/2009, -19/+56White, middle-aged, uneducated women. Stop shopping so much.
- rahga, on 10/27/2009, -1/+22Quick math... At least half a million Americans get cancer per year, and that's just one type of disease. If you are hit with anything debilitating, odds are you will wind up financially ruined. Millions of people per year in the US are hit with something significant, and health insurance is useless. Thank your senators and congressmen for that.
It's no longer about personal responsibility. It's about hospitals taking a page out of the college playbooks and writing bottomless checks for themselves, getting every ounce of money they can from their victims. Toss in the sorry economy and the insane fact that Citibank gets a massive handout while charging 30% interest rates, and I'm sorry, but that million number is incredibly small. - badqat, on 10/27/2009, -0/+21http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/05/bankruptcy.me ...
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31099365
Granted, 60% isn't all, but it is a majority. - jamwil87, on 10/27/2009, -3/+22Here's a fancystat... You're server sucks.
http://rorr.im - fuzzynyanko, on 10/27/2009, -2/+15Already down:
http://rorr.im/digg.com/business_finance/who_is_fi ... - rahga, on 10/27/2009, -0/+12alias: The bankruptcies aren't because of new hospital bills, but new poverties. Whereas you could once maybe afford to pay the hospital a couple of benjamins a month while sorting out your living hell, the new reality of no raises, layoffs, and a complete death of part-time and freelance work has forced the hand of far too many people. Even I am spending every waking moment fighting this problem... Two employers I worked with failed, my old profession is essentially gone. If not for the fact that a car is getting paid off next month and a loan I took to cover some medical costs will be paid in a few more months, I'd have to do the same thing myself.
- astyanax, on 10/27/2009, -3/+14If you want to overgeneralize, it's white, middle-aged, EMPLOYED women. I kind of doubt shopping has jack to do with it, then credit card interest rates being what they are...
- rahga, on 10/27/2009, -0/+11Let's see... They are likely to be insured but underinsured, not wealthy enough for the silver platter, not poor enough for the free ride. Modern hospitals use nonprofit status to hide their motives and enable their unique flavor of evil. The ones who file bankruptcy are the ones that the hospitals pushed too hard.
- kingmanic, on 10/27/2009, -3/+13Kinda deflates the right wing theory that 'minorities' and the government caused the recession by the government encouraging minorities to buy homes through fannie mae. Since it seems it's mostly poorly educated white people who seem to be going bankrupt the most.
Do you know what this data suggests? It suggests idiot financial guru's like Robert Kiyosaki (rich dad poor dad) were a large part of the problem since their key demographic is under educated white people who don't make that much. Their advice was to buy real estate using high interest 'zero down' mortgages and then selling the house before the mortgage interest eats you. This strategy only works with a rapid rise in housing prices and thus generally only within a real estate bubble. When the bubble burst all the morons are left holding a huge under water mortgage leading to bankruptcy.
Kiyosaki basically encouraged the stupid to become real estate speculators with a really risky but widely available financial instrument and fuelled the bubble. - ziplizard, on 10/27/2009, -0/+8It would be helpful if they listed how many children the people have in their care.
- inactive, on 10/27/2009, -2/+10Oh FFS. It's called sarcasm. Is the /s necessary every time someone is ***** around?
- joculator, on 10/27/2009, -2/+9How the hell can a man afford a second Bentley on 5 million a year. Have a heart you bastard!
- chilledmartini8, on 10/27/2009, -3/+9Bad statistics, especially on ethnicity, education and income. We should be comparing the percentage of the population filing for bankruptcy, not merely percentage of the bankrupt population.
Even if all Minority Ethnic Group A people become bankrupt and only 30% of Majority Ethnic Group B people are bankrupt, B will still show up higher in your stats.
The right question to ask is:
Given a person white uneducated male, what's the chance that he is bankrupt, and not
Given a bankrupt person, what are the chances that he is white, uneducated, and male. - Velocity14, on 10/27/2009, -2/+8Seeing this makes me think of my 56 year-old foreign mother who barely makes $25k as a horribly underpaid nurse assistant in a hospital that is eventually closing down the sector she's employed in. She became diabetic, had a heart attack and multiple health issues from allergic reactions to antibiotics, numerous work injuries from being 4'9" 90lb moving 250lb+ fat people from their beds, and has two unemployed adults living under her roof (don't even get me started on that). She's been working her ass off to stay on top of her medical bills, but while working overtime and double shifts, she's hurting herself even more.
It's difficult knowing that I will have a much more fortunate life financially for drawing pictures and animating them -- work that is not even close to being as laborious as what she's done in her lifetime -- but I'm not making my fortunes fast enough to take care of her yet. And with each and every deposit exchange between us to help each other out when in need, I know that means she's losing more and more money. I've always feared that my mom would be consumed by debt and not be able to relax. Yes, this was purely an emotional response... but it's sad to see this happen to my mom. :(
I literally do not understand why an individual needs millions upon millions of dollars. So many people are struggling to ascend the basic needs of life and in many ways never get a chance to experience true freedom and happiness because it's so damn difficult to get off of the financial security stage. And to know that my mom is one of those people who hasn't been able to simply *live* breaks my heart. I'm not saying it should be easy to be rich, but it shouldn't be difficult to stay poor instead of bankrupt, y'know? - pussnuts, on 10/27/2009, -0/+5Oh god you just described my soon to be wife... who is also declaring bankruptcy as a precondition to marrage... Damnit I'm so *****.
- gr00vy, on 10/27/2009, -1/+5Apparently server owners are having problems.
- JulioChavez, on 10/27/2009, -0/+48.7 million unemployed - this means people that are actively looking for work. ( A very lowball number - look it up ) I imagine that several million of these people have defaulted on their credit cards and/or mortgages but just haven't claimed bankruptcy. ( yet ) In most cases, claiming bankruptcy is not going to help someone pay their mortgage. Bankruptcy just forgives some of your debt but does nothing to help your financial situation if you've already stopped paying your consumer loans, so that you can keep your home a little longer.
There are a lot more than 1 million Americans that are bankrupt ( unable to meet their debt obligations with income ) but haven' claimed it yet. Many never will. This crisis has very little to do with adjustable mortgages. There are many families who are unable to afford the fixed rate mortgage payment they have been paying for decades. ( most have refinanced their 30 year mortgages to some degree ) Seems like we are ***** doomed. Our economy is based on growth and there is no more growth to be had - only contraction. - phpld, on 10/27/2009, -4/+8As we have increasing inequality in the United States, things like bankruptcy, food stamps, welfare, crime and homelessness will become bigger and bigger issues. I don't have the perfect solution for solving the problem of similar inequality levels as we had at the time of the great depression, but I can tell you that the tax structure now and the tax structure then is almost identical. I don't think we have the political will to raise taxes on the wealthy, even though they are actually seeing their incomes rise at the same time we have 10% unemployment. Obviously, there is a problem with the current picture. If it were up to me, I would setup some higher tax brackets at the $1 million, $5 million and $10 million/year marks. I think it would help level things out. $5 million is enough for anyone to live the rest of their lives without ever working again. To increase the tax on such an individual will not prevent that fact from remaining true, and they will still have AMAZING opportunities in life. With higher taxes on the wealthy we could do a better job educating our people and making our country more competitive again. But unfortunately, I think there is a lack of political will, and it is just sad. I hope I am wrong, and that people will stand up and take back this country.
- blapierre, on 10/27/2009, -0/+4The recession is caused by the boom-bust cycle which is for the most part caused by the government granting a monopoly to a private corporation to artificially control inter-bank interest rates.
- lavis88, on 10/27/2009, -1/+5There were many causes of the housing bubble, but there were many government policies that blew up the housing bubble.
1) Community Re-investment Act encouraged home buying for minorities and those that couldn't afford it
2) "Nonprofits" funneling money between investors and borrowers to put a down payment on FHA loans (this was really fraud on the part of the nonprofits, but hey the gov have a record with medicare fraud)
http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2009/10/home-loans ...
3) Federal Reserve leaving interest rates too low 2001-2004 fueled an expansionary bubble already going on in the housing market
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/feds/2009/20093 ...
4) Government over-regulation of equities, under-regulation of securities (see mortage-backed securities)
5) Basel accord regulations on reserve requirements allowing banks to leverage up to 60% more by securitizing and selling off the mortgages they sold
6) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (you knew that already)
7) 2004 SEC ruling granted American investment banks the ability to employ their own internal models to assess credit risk, allowing them to leverage even higher than commercial banks
8) 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act which exempted housing from capital-gain taxes up to $500,000
For more information: http://www.criticalreview.com/crf/current_issue.ht ... - phpld, on 10/27/2009, -0/+4There was an Artificial inflation of home prices as well as an Artificially created feeling that home prices would keep rising. The ability of banks to create these credit default swaps and insure them through AIG was something was virtually unknown to the average American. Clearly American were tricked, and then as a country we turned around and bailed out the very people who created these tricky financial instruments that nobody understood.
But now it is time for people to understand that
1. officers of these companies need to have their salaries
2. Banks must not ever be allowed to risk deposits like this ever again
3. Big banks need to be broken up into smaller banks that are easier to deal with when they are caught screwing around with people's money - eljitto, on 10/27/2009, -0/+3ya, but the kids need Lambo's
- triclipse, on 10/27/2009, -3/+6"Even I am spending every waking moment fighting this problem."
I feel for you, I really do. But do you expect me to take the money I must earn to support my own family and give it to you (through a government bureaucratic filter)? - kegwin, on 10/27/2009, -1/+4Yes /s
- blapierre, on 10/27/2009, -1/+4Yeah, we should have taxed away all of Bill Gates' and Warren Buffet's money so that they wouldn't have been able to give BILLIONS to help other people. Every dollar that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet spend is many times more effective at helping people than every dollar the US government spends.
- rahga, on 10/27/2009, -1/+4I really hate to break it to you, but there is one and only one good thing about having the mega-wealthy around: Private investment in innovative companies. I'd like to think of a better example than Elon Musk, but I can't. When you take your millions and put it towards a company like Telsa or SpaceX ($100 million), you can go much, much further than you can if you relied on horrible gambling schemes like the public stock market. Board of directors be darned, you're going to get results by leveraging your money, and it will be far better spent there than it will be in the government's hands.
Most of the mega-wealthy, though, are useless and deserve to be taxed to oblivion. Doesn't mean I think that should happen, though. - ericcc, on 10/28/2009, -0/+3Most of those numbers add up very close to 100%. So I think that it says XX% of bankruptcy cases are comprised by a certain group *not* XX% of a certain group file for bankruptcy. By that logic alone middle aged women should have a higher bankruptcy rate than any other group.
- RockSlice, on 10/27/2009, -0/+3These numbers are a bit misleading. They're "% of Bankruptcies are ___"
More meaningful would be "% of _____ are filing Bankruptcies"
So, drawing from the 2000 US Census, with an index of 100 meaning a representative # filing:
< HS: 38.1
HS or more: 111.4
Bachelors or more: 171.5
Male: 96.1 ; Female: 103.7
18-24: 23.7
25-34: 146.6
35-44: 205.6
45-54: 178.1
55-64: 144.4
65+: 57.9
White: 98.7
Black: 101.6
Latino: 49.0
Asian: 81.8
So the people that are filing are the people with college degrees, and are 30+, but not retired. Not to say that people without degrees aren't hurting, but they may not have the resources to get into enough debt to file for bankruptcy.
Wonder what the secret of the Latinos is... - R3publican, on 10/28/2009, -0/+3I have no schooling, so I couldn't read it.
- csspublic, on 10/27/2009, -1/+4Finally! A statistic that shows equality in this country! So .... basically everyone has an equal chance of becoming bankrupt regardless of race. Unless your Hispanic/Latino -- but I imagine there is a perfectly logical explanation for that anomaly.
From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_U ...
Race Percentage
White, 74%
Hispanic/Latino, 14.8%
Black, 13.4%
Other, 6.5%
Asian, 4.4%
Two or more race, 2.0%
American Indian, 0.68%
Hawaiian, 0.14%
Percentage Bankrupt from the Site:
White, 73.3%
Black, 12.5%
Latino, 7.4%
Asian, 3.6%
Other, 3.2% - Ibox, on 10/27/2009, -1/+4Latinos don't have any credit in the first place, that's their secret.
- kingmanic, on 10/27/2009, -0/+3You may have to adjust a bit since Hispanic and Latinos are double counter for some reason and thus your race percentages add up to over 106%.
- junyamint, on 10/27/2009, -0/+2It looks about right. People that make little money, not very educated, and are older are more likely to file for bankruptcy. Almost 50% of the people were over 45. If you have barely been making it by until you are 45 (and nearly 60% made less than 30k) and then suddenly some large large expenditure comes your way you are going to be in financial hard times.
A big expenditure could be medical crisis, losing your job, ballooning mortgage, so many things. For people to be safe in their old age they need to take the necessary steps early on. Your 20-50 aren't just for spending everything you make you should set yourself up for a livable future.
I would like to see the incomes adjusted to cost of living. I bet the people going under with 60k were not the ones living in the boonies but instead in urban areas. - Dauntless1, on 10/27/2009, -1/+3Drug deals, rims and the inability to find their food stamps in their workboots.
Lord, I apologize. - InfiniteNothing, on 10/29/2009, -0/+2No, there just aren't alot of people in general that no schooling.
- fcukthisgame, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2Good save.
- jamwil87, on 10/29/2009, -0/+2***** YOU'RE cool.
- thecoolestguy, on 10/27/2009, -1/+3---For 'thecoolistguy' you sure sound like you fall into that 'GED' bracket.---
A personal attack from a leftist!? No way!
---Medical bills are THE number one reason for filing for bankruptcy, idiot. So the whole sarcastic tone doesn't work. ---
What's idiotic is thinking that forcing other people to pay someone's medical bills will decrease the total number of bankruptcies. It'll just shift the risk, and the cause of bankruptcies, from medical bills, to general debts.
More taxes = less savings, smaller incentive to increase income, smaller personal safety net, more vulnerability to financial shocks, and also, greater chance of national bankruptcy (ala Soviet Union, or California).
Government is not a magic wand. For every thing it can give people, it needs to first take it from someone else. There is a price for ANY THING the government does, and for all functions but public goods (e.g. roads, local emergency response, national security), the price is higher than the benefit. - nepidae, on 10/27/2009, -4/+6If you make less than 30k then no you do not need to by that new purse or new rims.
- MrColdheart, on 10/28/2009, -1/+3sorry to make you feel like an ass but type the words...
Harvard bankruptcy study 2009 .... in your google - jeremykalgreen, on 10/27/2009, -0/+2Gates and buffet both support higher taxes on the super rich.
- nepidae, on 10/27/2009, -1/+3Yeah, they pretty much do expect that.
- phpld, on 10/27/2009, -1/+3There will still be mega wealthy individuals with higher taxes, and it is a proven fact that higher taxes actually bring about more investment in R&D, because the wealthy derive a greater sense of security by investing in the future, rather than holding their money and playing games on the stock market.
- algaeturd, on 10/27/2009, -5/+7For 'thecoolistguy' you sure sound like you fall into that 'GED' bracket.
Medical bills are THE number one reason for filing for bankruptcy, idiot. So the whole sarcastic tone doesn't work.
Have another option to beat the problem of medical bills causing people to go bankrupt?
I didn't think so. You're just sitting on the wall waving the rightard flag, hoping people will join in the mindless parade where facts, logic and reason have no place in your comments or thinking.
I'd certainly hate for you to get cancer and find yourself losing every single thing you own while drowning in debt. But that's what happens many times in America and there's no way around it and there would be no way around it for you, either, most likely.
So I would hate to see that happen just so you could learn some basic, common sense that you might have learned in, I don't know, a GED preparatory class?
Look into one. Please. You and your type are destroying America with your ignorance. - astyanax, on 10/27/2009, -1/+3@ChuckHayesChuckHayes: Oh, sorry, it just wasn't funny when taken sarcastically, so I assumed it wasn't meant as such.
- xero69, on 10/28/2009, -0/+2being alone VS being broke, either option stinks
- danfive555, on 10/27/2009, -0/+2Remember, Gates crushed people a lot smarter than the ones he will save. So his actions are a double negative, killed off good products, good companies (and the people behind them) to save some schmucks with a little access to 1950s medical technology.
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