Recently, it was reported that the average American has $16,000 in credit card debt. While $16,000 doesn’t seem like a lot of money, this number was only $4,000 in 2008 and you still have to consider the income of the same average American. Four years ago the average was $40,000 a year and now it’s down to $35,000 a year. When you look at the amount of debt, add interest and living expenses, you have the ingredients for financial disaster. Most of these people are only making minimum payments as they are filing for bankruptcy. At the end of January 2014, consumer debt was reported to have exceeded $11.36 trillion. Add to that that student loan debt across the country is now a whopping $1.049 trillion. The media keeps reporting that things are looking up, but when you look at debt ratios and reduced income, I see a different picture. The US government is no different than consumers, the debt ceiling has been continually raised so you may wonder why they have a ceiling. The federal government now owes over $17 trillion and can’t really even afford the interest payments, but is allowed to print money. The biggest buyer of US debt is now the Federal Reserve. It’s all very well to borrow real money and be able to print fake dollars to pay back the money they’re borrowing. If you ask me, it’s complete madness. If the US government went bankrupt and got out of all its debt, it probably would. But instead they have hung the debt over the heads of American taxpayers by making our grandchildren’s grandchildren liable for this excessive spending.

The smart money will take a look at the big picture and, if necessary, file for bankruptcy to cut their losses, just like all corporations do. People buried under a mountain of debt should consider speaking with a bankruptcy attorney to see if filing is possible for their situation. In most cases, the bankruptcy attorney will offer some type of resolution that is feasible. When a person looks to see if he should consider filing for bankruptcy, he adds up all his debts and calculates how long it would take him to pay them off if he stopped collecting today. If it takes more than five years, they should seriously consider filing for bankruptcy. Although that sounds simple, creditors would like consumers to believe that it is much more complicated than that. They have spent billions of dollars on Madison Avenue to convey their opinion that changes the entire dynamic of the American consumer. They want Americans to feel bad about themselves if they go bankrupt. Using the media, they have made the American consumer feel like a complete failure when faced with financial problems. What they don’t tell you is that corporate America uses bankruptcy as a way to financially strengthen a company. In today’s markets, it is very common for a corporation to file for bankruptcy to eliminate the bad employment contract they have entered into with a union. If the unions don’t negotiate, they will first threaten them with bankruptcy and, if necessary, show up to force the unions back to the bargaining table. Also, when a lot of bad investments are made, they could use this to clean the books and start fresh. When they use bankruptcy, it’s smart business, but when you or I do it, we were dishonest and failed. This is why we must always remember who makes the rules. When the market virtually crashed in 2008, many people who never thought they would be faced with bankruptcy. This helped remove much of the stigma it had in the past. People should do what is best for their families and not worry about what creditors say or think about them.