This is something that must be, and can be fixed. One thing the story does not address is up front education. People are tragically under informed about the da

This is something that must be, and can be fixed. One thing the story does not address is up front education. People are tragically under informed about the dangers of credit. Hence you see this problem combined with the other three horses of the credit apocalypse. Payday loans, medical expenses, credit cards. Informing people about the dangers of these upfront is critical. Especially because we have laws to protect people - bankruptcy exists for a reason. Part of the problem is determine credit risk for underserved markets. Credit Scores are based mostly on what credit you already have, and even low information scores depend on utility bills, etc to determine credit worthiness. That makes the problem far worse because effective and relatively safe credit escape valves are unavailable to to those who really need it, because systems can not determine the difference between a mom down on her luck, and someone who really is just trying to get money for nothing.