I see all the time people with previous (usually chapter 7) bankruptcy. In 75% of the cases one or both of the following happened:
Medical Bills out of hand
Good people that just went too overboard (party due to easy access to credit partly due to irresponsibility)
Most of them are valiantly trying to do things right this time. Most people seem to rebuild a good credit history the second time around and learn from their first mistake.
The other 25% are either morons or were duped by an attorney into filing when they didn't really need to. These are the people likely to have another bankruptcy again at some point.
You are more knowlegable that 90%+ of the public... the number once cause of Bankrupcy filing bar none is MEDICAL BILLS... and number 2 isn't an inability or non desire to pay their bills.. but illegal pressure by credit card collection departments that scare folks into filing bankruptcy!
Those 2 things represent more than 95% of all bankruptcy filings... the "deadbeat" argument is a lie, and the banks know it! But they can sell that horsecrap to the public, because most of the public has been sold the class envy BS that they will buy it hook line and sinker.. If we portray bankruptcy as a tool of the rich to avoid their debts, people will buy it.
Reality is, that's not remotely whats going on with bankruptcies... If you graph the number of credit card solicitations per year, and the number of bankruptcy filings you will see a direct correllation!.. Banks are completely irresponsible about who they will lend to, and don't want to deal with the consequences of that irresponsibility. Its cheaper and faster to buy congress... the Republicans including Bush should be tarred and feathered for this one!