As of today, 700 telephone interviews have been completed as part of the current round of data collection on the Consumer Bankruptcy Project. Since I am overseeing this part of the process, I have had the privilege of being one of the first to hear about people’s experiences with bankruptcy. One thing that has struck me repeatedly is the extreme loneliness and isolation that typically accompanies these families as they wind their way through bankruptcy. The people who are going through it often go it alone. They seldom turn to family members or friends for support. More often, they say that it would be a cold day in hell before they even told anyone else about their insolvency, let alone ask them for help. And there simply are no support groups for these people.

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I grew up believing that some types of debt were good and necessary: namely, mortgage and student loan debt. (I’m in my mid-40s, just to provide some historical context.) The assumption, I expect, was that these debts would, in the long-run, pay off. (The house would eventually evolve into wealth to be passed to one’s kids and the education would make it possible to pay off that mortgage.) However, with recent reports of corruption in certain segments of the student loan industry, the stories of educated Americans owing more student loan debt than they can ever hope to repay, the historically high rates of home foreclosures, and the meltdown of the mortgage lending industry, I’m not so convinced that either one of these types of debts is at all good. In fact, I think that Americans should be encouraged to rethink (even reject?) these taken-for-granted pillars of the American dream.

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One of the things that so many Americans pride themselves on is their ability to make it on their own. Call it the "boot-strap" approach, if you’d like. Very individualistic. Much more so than most other industrialized nations. I was reminded of this quintessential American attitude when I read an email from one of our research assistants who is currently completing questionnaires with bankrupt families for the Consumer Bankruptcy Project.

The questionnaires ask folks what they did to try to "make ends meet" before they finally filed bankruptcy. While we give them a list of prepared options, we also provide them the opportunity to tell us about "anything else" they did to try to make it. Today, one woman told our RA the following:

"I ran an ad in the local newspaper that said, ‘Disabled woman wanting to sell household items for gas money.’" This woman went on to say that she had sold almost everything in her house that she doesn’t use on a daily basis, as well as family treasures that had been passed down from her grandmother. She said that she also has 25 zucchini in her garden that she is thinking about selling at a veggie version of a lemonade stand. However, she’s reluctant because she’s afraid she will be fined for not having a vendor’s license.

Now if that isn’t the American way, I don’t know what is. Kind of blows that whole "bankrupts are deadbeats" myth right out of the water, doesn’t it?

How deplorable that this country treats its most vulnerable citizens with such disregard. 

I’m wrapping up an article on the gendered nature of the slide into personal bankruptcy. It’s taken from a chapter of my dissertation–which was the result of interviews with bankrupt couples. Since so little of what sociologists write actually gets read by others (either in the general public or across disciplines), I thought I’d take this chance to share my findings.

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The wonderful thing about holiday break is that I have guilt-free, university-mandated time to spend a few extra hours at the stable riding my mare, Zoe. I’ve been at this particular stable for six months now, and, having come from a working-class family, am amazed (maybe appalled would be a better word) by the extreme wealth that is evident there. The $20,000 horse is considered the economy model; at the upper end is the quarter horse gelding that is insured for more than $100,000. For a horse! (And I thought the $2,600 price tag on my Zoe was outrageous.) Of course, when the price of the horse is coupled with the $150,000 horse trailer and the $60,000 pick up truck, well, you get my point.

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