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Well, if you were in the Senate, you could count on my vote for "anyone but Torie". Personal responsibility, financial and otherwise, has to be flogged back in people, if need be (and there IS a huge need for it).
Centuries ago there were debtors' prisons, and before that the institution of debt slavery, even extending to debtor's family. Not that there were no bad debtors at that time - there were, but the notion of responsibility, buttressed by real penalties for failure - was much deeper rooted, to the point of being unquestionable.

Personal responsibility, financial and otherwise, has to be flogged back in people, if need be (and there IS a huge need for it).

Well, that's of course the argument, but doesn't commons sense suggest that there should be some personal responsibility, some consequence, for creditors who invest their funds unwisely?

And isn't it amusing to hear this batch of leaders make those arguments while creating this kind of debt?

Centuries ago there were debtors' prisons, and before that the institution of debt slavery, even extending to debtor's family. Not that there were no bad debtors at that time - there were, but the notion of responsibility, buttressed by real penalties for failure - was much deeper rooted, to the point of being unquestionable.

Well, that's true-but it wasn't centuries ago, it was forty years ago, and all the years before, that usury was illegal and "credit" cards didn't exist.

That was for a reason. The reason is that people have great difficulty with numbers, especially big ones, and will sell their children into peonage to get stuff like big screen TVs.

I am totally with you all who say, "pay your debts", but remember for most of the history of the Republic this particular type of debt contract was illegal, and for good reason.

I can tell from experience being in debt is BAD.
But personal responsibility demands that if you run up your debt load, its still YOUR OWN problem.
My wife and I started our own business 5 years ago and ran the debt levels EXTREMELY high. I have never been as scared as I was for my families future when I saw how deep in debt we had gotten during the startup.
But you know what? We Pay EVERY bill. We worked out credit terms with EVERY creditor.We take care of our obligations. We stopped using credit as soon as it was feasible, we spent less and we worked harder to make more money.
Guess what?
The debt is going away. It feels good and we are proud that we havent screwed anyone over.Bottom line, the debt we acquired allowed us to do things we couldn't have done otherwise and we OWE these credit card companies because we BORROWED it in the first place!These companies deserve to be paid back because they in good faith LOANED us money expecting we honor our obligation to pay it back with interest and applicable fees
I think a lot of people find it easier to ignore their responsibilities and feel helpless than to hunker down and do the work. I have no sympathy for someone who runs up their consumer debt and then complains that they have to pay for the stuff they bought. They feel like the credit card company is at fault for loaning them money which allows them to buy whatever they want. This is a clean cut case of temptation, weak wills and a desire to shift blame. It has no honor, faith, responsibility or moral grounding whatsoever. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that if you pay your debts, reduce the spending, stop being so materialistic and above all else , pray to god for help when you feel buried by debt, you will get out ok.

Actually debt slavery is alive and well in some third world countries. I believe in Thailand rural debtors frequently sell their daughters as sex slaves in Bangkok to pay off debts. I suppose this is good for certain Thai creditors but is it really a good idea? I submit that these third world countries are third world countries for a reason, a part of which is a medieval mindset with respect the debtor/creditor rights.