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>Owing money around really does sound like something a bad person would do. Why would this be your default assumption? People can end up owing money for any nu

>Owing money around really does sound like something a bad person would do. Why would this be your default assumption? People can end up owing money for any number of moral reasons. I'd rather someone have 10,000 in debt because they borrowed to help someone with medical debt who would have died otherwise, than for that hypothetical person to die because of a lack of money. From there, it's easy to posit someone losing their job to be a caretaker for said hypothetical person. Et voilà, there's your unpaid debt yet (IMHO) for completely moral reasons. My opinion on debt has substantially changed once I encountered "Debt : the First 5,000 Years".

b112 3y ago
Why would this be your default assumption I am not saying it is fair, or that I would make this assumption. However, car insurance is the same way. If some indicator shows correlation with a bad driver, eg age, birth sex, type of car, rates go up! Same thing with unpaid/delinquent debt. It is an indicator. If you have 10 good potential employees to hire, and one has bad debt....
- kelnos 3y ago
  Except no one has presented any evidence that bad debt is an indicator of job performance issues. Car insurance providers have a ton of data that correlates all those factors you mentioned, so for the most part it's reasonably fair for them to set rates based on that. No such data exists when it comes to debt and employment, as far as I can see. Just a bunch of people here arguing back and forth for their personal opinion.
  - krapp 3y ago
    There isn't any evidence, it isn't actually true. Debt is inescapable in a country where a trip in an ambulance can wipe out a family's entire income. It's just a cultural prejudice born from the American idolization of free markets (which itself is a vestigial expression of European classism and belief in noble divinity), rugged individualism (and a pathological fear of societal bonds) and the Protestant work ethic, mixed with a bit of racism and xenophobia.

b112 3y ago

Why would this be your default assumption I am not saying it is fair, or that I would make this assumption. However, car insurance is the same way. If some indicator shows correlation with a bad driver, eg age, birth sex, type of car, rates go up! Same thing with unpaid/delinquent debt. It is an indicator. If you have 10 good potential employees to hire, and one has bad debt....

kelnos 3y ago
Except no one has presented any evidence that bad debt is an indicator of job performance issues. Car insurance providers have a ton of data that correlates all those factors you mentioned, so for the most part it's reasonably fair for them to set rates based on that. No such data exists when it comes to debt and employment, as far as I can see. Just a bunch of people here arguing back and forth for their personal opinion.
- krapp 3y ago
  There isn't any evidence, it isn't actually true. Debt is inescapable in a country where a trip in an ambulance can wipe out a family's entire income. It's just a cultural prejudice born from the American idolization of free markets (which itself is a vestigial expression of European classism and belief in noble divinity), rugged individualism (and a pathological fear of societal bonds) and the Protestant work ethic, mixed with a bit of racism and xenophobia.