Put your big girl panties on

A long time ago, I worked for a law firm and was trying to collect a debt owed to the bank the firm represented. While talking to the creditor I was stunned when he said that it was the bank’s fault that he owed the money. He told me that the bank shouldn’t have lent it to him in the first place.

I was watching TV a little while ago and a commercial came on. It was for a debt relief company. The commercial started with a lead-in that said “if you are in credit card debt and it isn’t your fault, call….” How can people be in credit card debt and it not be their fault? They applied for the credit card. They used their credit card to buy things they wanted. They didn’t want to wait and buy things as they could afford them, they wanted everything immediately. They had no self control and they used their credit card to live a lifestyle they couldn’t afford. If a person is in credit card debt, it is their fault.

Where is personal responsibility? I know that when I borrow money, I have to pay it back. If I don’t pay the money back, it will damage my credit and I will not be able to borrow money in the future. If enough people fail to pay their debts, banks make borrowing harder and the same people who don’t want to pay their debt complain that they can’t borrow money.

I charged too much on credit cards and I had to negotiate a repayment plan when the credit card companies raised the interest rate. I cut up my cards. I’m paying the entire amount I borrowed and I make my payments the way I agreed when I negotiated with the companies. I was stupid. It was my fault. No one made me do it. I had to put my big girl panties on and handle it. I didn’t expect anyone to take care of the problem for me.

Debt repayment companies are setting a bad precedent when they feed the concept that you are not responsible for poor choices in life. Following this train of logic, a murderer is not responsible for killing someone because he had a bad childhood, the government isn’t responsible for outsourcing the manufacture of U.S. passports to a company in Thailand because it didn’t realize that terrorist would have access to “real” passports made in an area where terrorist activity is high, B.P. isn’t responsible for the damage in the Gulf because they didn’t know so much damage could be done….

There should be a standard of personal integrity where a person’s word can be relied on, their sworn oath should mean something, and people and companies should hold themselves accountable for their own decisions and actions. When will we quit making excuses for bad decisions and bad behavior? Having someone else pay for your mistakes is not an entitlement. A friend told me one time to put my big girl panties on and handle the problem. It is time that we put our big girl panties and our big boy underwear on and take responsibility for our choices.