Pleading Poverty;
Learning to Lie

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A friend of mine, overwhelmed by his debts, confided to me that he has filed for bankruptcy. I didn't say anything to him, but inside I was feeling that there's something immoral about declaring bankruptcy and thereby freeing yourself from debts you yourself incurred. Am I being unfairly judgmental?

Dear Uneasy Friend,
I can't fully answer if you are being unfairly judgmental, because you didn't provide me with enough information, and whether or not declaring bankruptcy is immoral depends on that information. For example, if your friend borrowed responsibly, spent his money prudently (particularly in the months preceding the bankruptcy), and then, through a series of events that he couldn't have reasonably anticipated, suffered a great decline in income and assets, the declaration of bankruptcy wouldn't be immoral.

Having said that, many bankruptcies in the U.S. today do strike me as immoral, particularly when incurred by people who bought on credit, or who borrowed money, without a credible plan for repaying their debts.

Obviously, what's particularly immoral is making unnecessary purchases during a time when one is already aware that he or she is in a tight circumstance and may have to declare bankruptcy. Also immoral are those who incur student loans to get a higher education and then declare bankruptcy as they prepare to practice the profession that they studied on money borrowed from others.

In short, if a person, or a bank or store, sold you something, or lent you money, and relied on your word that you'd pay, you are morally obligated to do so. Thus, it seems to me that even when a declaration of bankruptcy is justified, if one subsequently makes back the money owed, one has a moral, although not a legal, obligation to repay debts. The Golden Rule of "Do unto others as you wold have others do unto you" applies here.

Dear Joseph,
Recently, a neighbor was over when the phone rang. I was going to let the machine pick up the call, but my 10-year-old daughter got to the phone first. Because I didn't want to be interrupted, I whispered to her, "Tell whoever it is that I'm not home." My neighbor heard me and said that this was awful--I was teaching my daughter to lie. But isn't this really a pretty innocuous lie?
Confused

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