The Loan Default Myth
I get irritated at the line of argument that says the world was a better place when consumers let burdensome loans wreck their families, and drive them personally into the ground like over-sized tent pegs. Enough.
Yes, people used to be much more nervous about defaulting. But so what? If a loan no longer meets your requirements, or if it's crushing you financially, or if your circumstances have changed, there is no need to go leaping off bridges about it. The world has changed and the consequences of loan defaults & loan renegotiations are no longer need be as dire as they once were. People who pretend otherwise are selling something -- usually an over-rosy picture of an imaginary past.
It's about time individuals caught up with countries and companies. Both have always had more flexibility with respect to loan defaults/renegotiation than individuals have. While I'm not suggesting that loan commitments should be as fickle as, say, high school relationships, I am saying that imagining they they need to remain financial straightjackets is not rational. It is a mindset that prevents some appropriate people from getting loans who might appropriately get them (they may have the resources but are afraid of the commitment), and it keeps some people in loans who should have long ago been let out.
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