i was speaking to the context of those who buy tons of stuff they cant afford, consumer goods, not cars and houses, with credit cards. i too rang up lots of credit card debt once, and paid it off eventually, but it would have been easy to do the bankruptcy thing. i have a personal friend who declared bankruptcy, and bought a house with a loan only a few years, i think four, later.
no, if you cant afford crap you dont need, like eating out, movies, electronics, etc., putting it on credit and then finding out what you knew to begin with-you cant afford it-so you declare bankruptcy, COSTS us all. high ticket items essential to life, housing, auto, college, are not consumer goods.
If people go can be shown to have gone out and spent themselves into oblivion on purpose, I consider it fraud. They should be prosecuted. If somebody seemed to have a stable job, then lost it and it's been a year and they're really struggling, I would feel differently. We do all pay for those who declare bankruptcy for sure. And I don't like it eather. I even get angry when I see someone pick up something in the supermarket and set it down somewhere else. Somebody has to be paid to put that back.