Reply #5: Did you miss the part about student debt...

[ljm2002]

...a few years ago, Congress made a law that student loans cannot be included in any bankruptcy filing. It passed. There was also an attempt to exempt credit card debt, I'm not sure if that one went through or not. Point being, bankruptcy laws are being weakened such that they protect debtors less and less.

All of this is by design. That is one of many reasons why we need debt forgiveness. There is also the travesty of house prices that have collapsed, but the banks refuse to write the values down to market level, and the peons are left on the hook for artificially inflated prices. Yes, I know, "they signed the mortgage agreement". Well guess what, so did the banks. One of the provisions was, they get to repossess the home if payments aren't made. So sending back the keys should be the end of it -- the home-buyer lived up to their end of the bargain and gave back the security for the loan. Right?

Debt forgiveness, or "jubilee years", has a long history.

There's always someone around, though, to complain that someone, somewhere will get something free because of it.

Yet those same people don't seem to mind when the banksters continue to rob us all blind. THEY get plenty of free stuff, starting with the money the Fed creates out of thin air, then loans to the government at interest. Or the bailout money, that financial institutions got at near-zero interest, and then proceed to loan out (at 40- or 50-to-one leverage) at interest. Sweet deal if you can get it.

Of course anything at all that is done, any action that is taken, will not make everyone happy. The question for policy makers must be, what can we do that will be most effective for the greatest number of people?

I'm not holding my breath.