GRRR! Here I am. I pay my bills. On time. I pay my student loans, on time. I pay my rent, on time. I scrimp and save. Where's my tax/responsibility avoidance scheme? This is right up there with that traitor to the national interest, Roni Deutch, who will settle your DEBT to your GOVERNMENT for pennies on the dollar.

Does anyone realize that when they first instituted the federal income tax, people were happy to pay it. They felt patriotic. And you know what, it's still patriotic to pay your taxes. They support our troops.

And oh yeah, by getting around what you actually OWE, you shift the burden on the good people like me who actually pay taxes and earn livings and don't walk out on their debts.

Nuke their credit ratings and impeach the IRS officials behind this (oh, and Congress too).

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mike

February 18, 2008 10:54 PM

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@PotKettleBlack: My golly! I totally agree.

Why should people who are diligent in paying bills, making money, pay for people who were too stupid and/or too naive to know any better?

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loueloui

February 19, 2008 12:30 AM

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2 MILLION DOLLARS! How about we make this a more reasonable $500,000, and not bail out these idiots who helped contribute to this mess by flipping a bunch of properties?

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descend

February 19, 2008 4:07 AM

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@gamehendge2000:

Under what definition of \"incentive\" does this not qualify?

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PotKettleBlack

February 19, 2008 3:26 PM

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I want to clarify. I'm in favor of bailing out people who were victims of predatory lending, fraud, obfuscation or other dark shade of gray stuff. But walking out on your mortgage and (legally) dodging the tax on your income (and yes, wiping out a debt and maintaining the same revenue is pure profit), is simply shifting the burden onto the fiscally good people of the world like most of the readers of Consumerist.

It's enough to make someone vote Republican. Of course, you'd have to ignore the social backwardness and the TREASON of pursuing borrow and spend policies to further enrich their donors.

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doc10house

March 5, 2008 11:08 AM

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Have to weigh in here.

I'm a physician. I earned in excess of 220,000 dollars per year, and I came by it honestly. I lost that job and with it, my earning potential. For the past 19 months I've been on pace to earn roughly a tenth that amount. I may soon have another, but that year and a half of squalor was more than enough to wipe out any savings many times over. So much for getting my 16 year old son into college without scholarships. So much for health insurance, or being able to fix a car that won't run.

Needless to say, the 289000 dollars I still owed the fine folks (?) at Chase for my home fell victim to foreclosure. Had I to pay tax on that as income this year, my tax bill would far exceed my actual (gross) annual earnings.

I've been through 12 years of post-high school education. That doesn't get done if one isn't a hard worker, or committed to paying one's debts. Not everyone who abandons a debt is lazy or stupid. Some are terribly unlucky.

Thank God for this change.

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