There seems to be a double standard on occasion. People who get into trouble with consumer debt buying clothes, TVs, cars, medical bills and maybe a vacation tend to be regarded as short-sighted, ego-gratifying suckers who if they would just shape up would be OK. No one had a gun to their collective heads, and they deserve whatever consequences their irresponsibility brings down upon them.

Those people who went into incredible debt putting 10% down on deriatives and made millions upon millions before the credit crunch get bailed out by the Feds. As an example of the kind of money they could make, the US Treasury Secretary made $700 million before going to work for the Feds.

Frankly, I can sympathize more with people who abuse credit cards on a relatively small scale than with those who abuse the entire financial system on a reckless scale which can't really be imagined only in the interests of greed.