Older Americans three times more like to go bankrupt than they were 27 years ago

Discussion in 'Economics & Trade' started by kazenatsu, Aug 7, 2018.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The rate of those 65 and older filing for bankruptcy is three times what it was in 1991, a new study finds. Researchers said it signaled that there were many more people in financial distress.

    For a rapidly growing share of older Americans, traditional ideas about life in retirement are being upended by a dismal reality: bankruptcy.

    The signs of potential trouble -- vanishing pensions, soaring medical expenses, inadequate savings -- have been building for years. Now, new research sheds light on the scope of the problem: The rate of people 65 and older filing for bankruptcy is three times what it was in 1991, the study found, and the same group accounts for a far greater share of all filers.

    Driving the surge, the study suggests, is a three-decade shift of financial risk from government and employers to individuals, who are bearing an ever-greater responsibility for their own financial well-being as the social safety net shrinks.

    The transfer has come in the form of, among other things, longer waits for full Social Security benefits, the replacement of employer-provided pensions with 401(k) savings plans and more out-of-pocket spending on health care. Declining incomes, whether in retirement or leading up to it, compound the challenge.
    Good article, read the rest of it here:
    https://www.seattletimes.com/nation...-late-bankruptcy-booms-among-older-americans/


    This statistic further demonstrates the transition of America into a Third World.

    The people in the next generation who are coming of age simply have less money, on average. Retirement will be difficult for them, and we're already seeing signs of that being the case.
     
  2. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    And now there is evidence that due to inflation combined with healthcare still being an unresolved problem, elderly bankruptcies are on the increase. Where has the moral responsibility in the USA gone??? -it is being sacrificed for business profits and greed.
     
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  3. jack4freedom

    jack4freedom Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Big swing in wealth to the top 1% and away from middle class because of our whores in congress and Supreme Court has rigged the system for the ultra rich.
     
  4. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Keep in mind this has all been part of a long-term trend.

    [​IMG]

    643,000 of these bankruptcies every year are due to medical bills.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2018
  5. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    You take a genuine concern and then make a nonsensical claim. Why not focus on the obvious? Neoliberalism and its extreme impact on income inequalities.
     
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  6. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Is that the problem in Mexico, the way you see it?
     
  7. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    Mexico has certainly experienced the negative effects of neoliberalism (indeed, many developing countries have since the Washington Consensus).

    That doesn't give you any rationale for your comment mind you.
     
  8. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Would you mind pointing out a non-English speaking non-European country that has not experienced the negative effects of neoliberalism?

    You know, just so we can get some idea what that might look like.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2018
  9. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    Try the Tiger Economies
     
  10. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Those are not like neoliberalism?
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2018
  11. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    The industrial policies used, which arguably are now inconsistent with WTO rule, is illustrative of interventionism creating dynamic comparative advantage.

    Can you hurry up and get to your right wing argument?
     
  12. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    But that has little to nothing to do with what you are really talking about when you refer to the "negative effects of neoliberalism", so it seems to be a big deflect.
     
  13. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    Used to be that people had Unions that had their backs and helped create pensions ... Republicans broke the unions and killed wage increases for twenty years by destroying collective bargaining. Democrats failed to come up with a more comprehensive health insurance plan. Out of control medical bills and a shrinking middle class income makes for big problems down the road.
     
  14. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    Your viewpoint is naive. It's a perfect example of the damage inflicted by market fundamentalism on developing countries. Where industrial policy has been enabled, countries have seen transformatory effects.
     
  15. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    This is our system failing for the population as capitalism crashes.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2018
  16. The Don

    The Don Well-Known Member

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    To what extent does this also reflect a different attitude towards bankruptcy in the US ? Many years ago, back in the 1960s, my uncle had a failed business and could have declared bankruptcy. He felt that there was considerable shame and stigma associated with it and spent years paying back his creditors to avoid it.

    These days however, bankruptcy in its various forms is increasingly being viewed as just another financial tool by people and corporations. There certainly doesn't seem to be much stigma associated with it - indeed in some entrepreneurial circles it may even just be viewed as a right of passage.

    This is not to diminish the very real pain and suffering (both physical and financial) that the United States' unique approach to funding and delivering healthcare has, but there may have been just as many people in severe financial difficulties in the past as a result, they just weren't willing and/or able to declare bankruptcy.

    Also, why the huge apparent drop between 2004 and 2006 ? Was there a change to bankruptcy laws.

    edited to add.....

    Yes there was a change in the law:

    https://qz.com/1043627/personal-bankruptcies-are-down-50-in-the-us-thanks-obamacare/
     
    Last edited: Aug 11, 2018
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  17. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    So its about an increase in selfishness?

    “I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement [Libertarians] in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.”

    Christopher Hitchens
     
  18. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I see you are not a supporter of Liberty.

    Tell me, is it just economic policy which you disagree with that movement about, or is it everything else too?
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2018
  19. The Don

    The Don Well-Known Member

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    In a board I frequented for over 15 years, the "rule of so" was bandied about a lot. I doubt whether it was invented or coined there but the gist was that any post which quoted another and started "So....." was almost certainly a gross misrepresentation of the quoted post.

    It's by no means infallible, but in my experience it's a halfway decent first order approximation.

    I have no idea whether selfishness has anything to do with it but IMO there have been societal changes to attitudes towards bankruptcy and the stigma, or lack thereof, associated with it. Personally my first thought about someone who declare bankruptcy due to their crippling medical expenses wouldn't be "What a selfish so-and-so", your mileage may vary. There is probably a conversation to be had about corporations and individuals using expedient bankruptcy as a means of avoiding having to pay what they owe but that is off-topic and is a very complicated subject in my opinion - for every corporation attempting to weasel of out its debts by entering chapter 11, there's likely another desperately trying to keep the doors open and the pay-cheques flowing to their employees.
     
  20. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    Wrong again. Market socialism is easily embedded within Austrian economics.
     
  21. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    A lot of words to avoid the point. You may not have thought it through, but you could have just typed "increase in selfishness".

    Try Smith's moral sentiments and the distinction between our behavioural traits and constraints on rapacity. Its quite possible that the corporation, normalising egoistic self interest, has increased selfishness.
     
  22. The Don

    The Don Well-Known Member

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    I disagree, I think you are quite wrong. It's not clear to me why someone who responds to crippling medical debts by declaring themselves bankrupt, because of a societal change towards bankruptcy is being selfish or has contributed to an increase in selfishness.
     
  23. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    You're disagreeing with yourself? Takes all sorts I suppose. You said that it was a "financial tool" that is sometimes seen as a "right of passage".
     
  24. The Don

    The Don Well-Known Member

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    I think you need to improve your reading comprehension skills. What I said was:

    It's not clear to me why bankruptcy being viewed as just another financial tool represents an increase in selfishness - not least because it's not clear whether whatever it replaced is more or less selfish (for example simply failing to pay up, or stealing away in the dead of night). Likewise w.r.t. entrepreneurs, it may be less selfish (at least giving cents back on the dollar) than the alternatives.
     
  25. Reiver

    Reiver Well-Known Member

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    Really? Where is the comment to medical debts in your original post? Its hiding well! What you did say is that it was being used as a financial tool and had become a right of passage.

    You're doing grand at arguing with yourself mind you. You'll be saying you support the Makems next.
     
    Last edited: Aug 15, 2018

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