Source please? Why not add in 4) the wage earner was killed while saving a kitten from a tree, 5) the wage earner was pre-occupied with helping tsunami and hurricane victims, 6) the wage earner gave all his money to help street urchins, ...
Losing one's job is something that one must consider when using credit to buy the vacation, or the snowmobile, or the big-screen TV, or anything for that matter. Credit is not a right, you are promising someone a piece of your future earnings for some of their present accumulated earnings. It should be difficult to steal their money and give nothing in return.
If you die or are ill, then you should have had insurance to assist your family. Sounds heartless? People that plan ahead and are in control of their lives are much happier than those that worry about each and every bill and where the money will come from.
At the end of the day, it comes down to living within your means, and borrowing only to pay for things that will generate additional income, any other strategy in the long run is disaster.
Or a house? Or a minivan? Or a student loan? And what about the credit card companies having to consider the risks of default when they hand out cards like candy to college kids, jack up the rates after a few late payments, and then bitch and moan when the same cardholder cannot get out of the inflated payments on a 36% card except via bankruptcy. This bill addresses NONE of the predatory practices of credit card companies. It is a one-sided bill, bought and paid for by MBNA et al.
AMEN, brotha.
Sometimes that strategy doesn't always work.
Case in point: after 7 years of trying, my husband and I finally successfully delivered a beautiful baby (my son). I had a high-risk pregnancy, but a good job with great benefits and lots of saved vacation time.
Eight months later, I was downsized. Landed a wonderful job with fabulous pay, but it was long hours and very demanding. Two months after starting, I was pregnant again.
I had a choice to make: stay at this demanding job and risk another miscarriage, or go to a low stress job and bring my baby into the world. Even before making this move, I contacted my husband's insurance company several times to confirm our benefits. Each time, I was assured that once we met our deductible, we would be covered 100%. We look at our finances, looked at how much I needed to make to cover us just for the short term, and decided.
I went to the low stress job. It was a good thing, too, because at just 32 weeks, my uterus ruptured and we (my daughter and I) were fighting for our lives.
Two weeks after bringing my fragile daughter home, I opened over $65K in medical bills. A bunch of stuff was "out of network" (even though I had no control over her treatment, we met all our deductibles and then some, I confirmed our benefits beforehand with them, and I saved those SOBs thousands by checking myself out of the hospital only two days later to be with her) and we got stuck holding a very big bag.
We starting cracking open nest eggs to pay, negotiating down bills, everything we could to keep our almost perfect credit rating and meet our obligations. It took me almost a year to get back on my feet physically; running after a newborn and a toddler left me little chance to fully heal.
Then came uterine cancer, several trips to the emergency room with my daughter due to the fragility of her lungs, and I was still stuck at a low paying job because 9/11 happened and the market just disappeared.
Still, we persevered.
My daughter is 3 now, my son is getting ready for kindergarten, I'm in a great job with good pay, and my credit card balance is finally coming down under $10K. There was no snowmobile or big-screen TV on that balance; it was medical bills, doctor's visits, kids clothes, sometimes the basics because we were just scraping by. We hung onto our two largest nest eggs by the sheer grace of God, but if another misfortune occurred like the last three years, we would have tanked.
There is light at the end of our tunnel; two more years, and we will return to financial solvency where we are socking away money again. But for folks who have grave misfortune strike, and the promises of insurance companies turn out to be empty, even the most frugal person can find their accounts depleted rather quickly.
I know. It happened to me.