Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Not as many people are filing for bankruptcy, only about 1 million people a year, down from an average of 1.5 million that has remained fairly steady for the past 20 years.
There are 300 million people in the whole country, 80 million of whom are children that can’t file.
If 1.5 million go broke year after year and I’m 50 years old, then 75 million people – nearly 25% of the country – has gone bankrupt in my lifetime.
Wow, how much better can The New Economy get?
Joe Doakes
Can? Much.
Will? Ugh.
Keep in mind you can file for bankruptcy something like once in every 7 years, so I’d guess that a lot of those 1.5 million per year are “repeat offenders.” Would be interesting to see the stats, though–especially as we’re finding things like 15% default rates on student loans not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Maybe a mean of two filings per lifetime among those who file?
(given that a bankruptcy stays on your credit report what–seven years officially and then you can see the signs of it another seven–that would make sense)