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Due to the “Government Shutdown” quite a few employees are, or will be, filing for bankruptcy.

“I can pay you when I get paid eventually” does not put food on the table and pay the mortgage now.

“Don’t tell mama I work for the government, she thinks I’m a piano player in cathouse.”

If someone files bankruptcy over missing a few weeks of work that they will soon be paid for anyway, they have worse problems than the government shutdown.

It used to be, far away and long ago, that taking bankruptcy was a shameful thing, to be avoided at all cost and a source of shame and remorse ever after. Now, not so much. It's merely another tool of financial planning. These new bankrupts took advantage of the cover story to shed their debts, having an excuse, just like those who stopped making payments on their mortgages when they realized the mortgage was more than the value of the home. It's a "strategic foreclosure!" All those folks are now being courted to take out new mortgages, without penalty for having broken their promise to pay, because there are so many of them and "there's gold in them thar hills!"

I used to hear ads on the radio, "You have the right to settle your credit card debts for less than you owe!" How anyone can make loans in this environment is baffling. Now that mortgages and banks have been nationalized in all but name only, it starts to make sense. Only the government is stupid enough to act like this.

JALLEN wrote:If someone files bankruptcy over missing a few weeks of work that they will soon be paid for anyway, they have worse problems than the government shutdown.

You hit the nail on the head. There's a reason that level of fiscal irresponsibility is a red flag for fraud audits.

JALLEN wrote:If someone files bankruptcy over missing a few weeks of work that they will soon be paid for anyway, they have worse problems than the government shutdown.

I don't know about the recent shutdown but during the previous furloughs, employees were not allowed to withdraw from their Thrift Savings Plan. I suppose if they had enough other savings to last a month, they would be OK. Some people were required to work but would not be paid until the shutdown ended.

Maybe they'll decide that working for the government doesn't provide the security they thought it would, and they'll move on and get a private sector job. . . . . . and see how the rest of us live.

VoiceofReason wrote:I don't know about the recent shutdown but during the previous furloughs, employees were not allowed to withdraw from their Thrift Savings Plan. I suppose if they had enough other savings to last a month, they would be OK. Some people were required to work but would not be paid until the shutdown ended.

My family makes it a point to have three to six months of living expenses in the bank at all times. We do that because we have one income and we know it's not guaranteed. I'm sympathetic to not being paid, but it shouldn't be an end-of-the-world issue if you use some common sense in your financial planning. It's not like the government shutdown came as a surprise, either.

From each according to their ability. To each according to their greed.