News

Edit: thought this was a reply to the Trump case. Edited to apply to Jones

Bankruptcy is not "granted". It is a legal process and courts cannot decline to bankrupt a person. This is the law in the United States, and changing it would require an Act of Congress. Nobody has to "agree" to this. It is just as much a violation of the rule of law to unduly deprive Jones of the rights he has by law as it is to ignore the consequences of his actions prescribed by law. It doesn't matter what your opinion is of him or his actions; these are his rights. Anyone who has a crushing amount of debt that they can't pay off, due to no particular fault of their own other than bad financial management, can have their assets liquidated and those debts cancelled. Note that debts incurred by fraud or malicious intent, such as this large judgement, are still not eligible for cancellation in bankruptcy. The purpose of personal bankruptcy laws around the world is because it is recognised that citizens are more economically productive when they aren't forced to pay a crushing amount of debt for the rest of their lives. It isn't fair to them. Again, we're looking at laws that apply to everyone, so your opinion of Jones's case doesn't matter. It isn't about Jones.

Nobody "walks away" from debt. People get their assets liquidated, their properties sold off. and in many cases their lives upended by bankruptcy. Nobody will ever want to lend money to someone bankrupt. Since Jones declards personal bankruptcy then his business and assets will be sold to pay his creditors and he'll be left with maybe enough to live an average life working an actual job. At the same time, the law stipulates that he, like everyone else, still deserves a decent standard of living even despite his debts. This is not favouritism, this is the rule of law.

Consider the case where a person, after getting into a serious car accident, is hospitalised for two months. When they get out, now they could owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital bills, could be severely behind on their mortgage, was out of work for two months so they might also owe thousands of dollars on their credit card, and may have even lost their job in the meantime. All those things are possible in the US, so you have to understand that bankruptcy is the last resort for this person. Otherwise, interest and late fees on tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt will crush them for the rest of their lives, and we (Americans) as a society have decided that we don't want people in that position.