Real Purpose of Bankruptcy Law - Corporate Profit

The United States credit card industry rakes in $2.5 billion a month in profits – largely in fees and interest charged to the American consumer. But its thirst for additional profits is insatiable. Credit card corporations are showering Congress with cash in an attempt to squeeze every last dime out of those who can afford it least to by making it harder for them to get out of debt.Meanwhile the bill does nothing to stop "abusive lending practices by credit card companies."

The bankruptcy bill is an attempt to prevent people from filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy – which gives people a clean slate – and make them file under Chapter 13, which requires continued payments to the credit card companies. Already, judges can deny Chapter 7 protection if they think the law is being abused. The bankruptcy bill would require consumers to complete a complex array of forms to "prove" they qualify for Chapter 7. But according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, just "3 percent of people who file under Chapter 7 could continue to pay under a court-supervised plan if they filed under Chapter 13." So the real impact of the bill would not be to prevent abuse of the system but to "make filing for bankruptcy much more costly" for those who genuinely need it. 

The overwhelming majority of Americans do not become bankrupt by purchasing Rolex watches and plasma TVs. The leading cause: getting sick. A Harvard University study found that half of all respondents "said that illness or medical bills drove them to bankruptcy."