From a customer perspective and as a CITRMS, I think I know why many people are in serious debt in America. First of all the consequences for not paying off debt is not severe enough to motivate the average person to eliminate debt. You can owe a credit company thousands of dollars, but you are not going to jail for it. But failing pay your speeding ticket will often land you in jail. Failing to pay your credit card debt or health bill will initially produce nasty letters demanding payment or the very worst, nasty bill collectors who harass you on the telephone. However, when people receive a letter from an attorney that promises legal action if their debt is not paid within 30 days, many people scoff at even that. They believe that since they can not pay the debt in full, the courts won’t allow them to pay. Most people think that courts force only wealth defendants to pay court settlements. They believe that they can sweet talk the judges into believing that they are 100% incapable of paying the debt.
Why do people think this has very little consequences? Don't they realize their credit rating will be destroyed and part of their wages will eventually be garnished? All the information is available on state court websites. Lawsuits don't just apply to wealthy Americans. They also involve companies who sue individuals who fail to pay their debts that they owe to these companies. They also involve middle-class individuals filing lawsuits against other middle class individuals. Unfortunately, the media is really not interested in these stories because it is not compelling news and will plummet their ratings. This is explained in my earlier blog which is titled Middle-Class House Fires vs. Lawsuits: Media Perception vs. Reality.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Middle-Class House Fires vs. Lawsuits: Media Perception vs. Reality
I had an interesting discussion with several people about how house fires are perceived in the media. I think the reporting of this danger in the media does not reflect reality. Don't get me wrong, I have renter's insurance to protect against it but the risk of having your house destroyed by a fire is very low(less than 1%). However, the media creates the illusion that it occurs more than 25% of the time. (Just my estimation based on media perception) If you depend on the media to accurately depict the threats that are around us, you will miss several threats that receive relatively less coverage.
I think the emotional devastation rather than financial devastation of houses being destroyed by fires is why house fires are reported on the news far more frequently than lawsuits between middle class individuals. Secondly, I suspect that most house fires do not destroy the home and may involve hundreds or thousands of dollars of damage which is equivalent to the worth of property damages in many traffic accidents. This goes unreported. However, the vast majority of house fires that the media depicts involve a complete destruction of homes and its belongings.
I also think the media is only interested in civil lawsuits that create a lot of drama for high ratings. Lawsuits that are depicted have the theme of Middle/Lower Class Victim vs. Big Bad Corporations Villain and involve millions of dollars. Yet middle class defendants who lose their civil suits are still required to pay monthly payments for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in court judgments. It is no different than middle class Americans financing cars and homes. IMO the financial devastation of financing a new home for $200,000 is equal to the financial devastation of a losing defendant paying monthly installments for a $200,000 judgment because one could not afford legal representation to defend oneself. The media has a limited amount of time and one cannot expect them to show things that do not invoke an emotional response or generate ratings. Thus, we should not expect the media to change its attitude. However, we cannot rely on them to be an adequate assessment of threats and issues, especially from a financial perspective.
I think the emotional devastation rather than financial devastation of houses being destroyed by fires is why house fires are reported on the news far more frequently than lawsuits between middle class individuals. Secondly, I suspect that most house fires do not destroy the home and may involve hundreds or thousands of dollars of damage which is equivalent to the worth of property damages in many traffic accidents. This goes unreported. However, the vast majority of house fires that the media depicts involve a complete destruction of homes and its belongings.
I also think the media is only interested in civil lawsuits that create a lot of drama for high ratings. Lawsuits that are depicted have the theme of Middle/Lower Class Victim vs. Big Bad Corporations Villain and involve millions of dollars. Yet middle class defendants who lose their civil suits are still required to pay monthly payments for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in court judgments. It is no different than middle class Americans financing cars and homes. IMO the financial devastation of financing a new home for $200,000 is equal to the financial devastation of a losing defendant paying monthly installments for a $200,000 judgment because one could not afford legal representation to defend oneself. The media has a limited amount of time and one cannot expect them to show things that do not invoke an emotional response or generate ratings. Thus, we should not expect the media to change its attitude. However, we cannot rely on them to be an adequate assessment of threats and issues, especially from a financial perspective.
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