I don’t think people who go bankrupt are losers or morally corrupt. Most people are just good people stuck in the middle of a really bad situation. But people do feel bad about the situation and often feel less than whole for having lived through the need to file bankruptcy.
But I could not help chuckle at the irony here as a debt collector was using the classic “you’re a loser” approach with a debtor and then it came out the debt collector had recently gone bankrupt and not paid his own debts.
Look, debt collectors pull this moral manipulation crap because they know it works. And that’s exactly what this and every other debt collector that tries to guilt you into paying a debt you can’t afford is trying to do.
Federal court records show Swafford (the debt collector) also filed for personal Bankruptcy in March of 2009, claiming $717,000 in total debt, including $13,000 owed on a Home Depot credit card. He listed having $40 in his checking account and $5 in his savings account. Court documents also say Swafford had $421,655 in assets, and may have lost money on various investment properties during the nation’s crash in housing prices.
But in one of the messages left for Gordon, Swafford seems to lecture the customer on the importance of paying off debts.
“See, a real man realizes he screwed up and then he pays the money back. See, that’s not you though. You’re a punk,” Mickey says in the message. “If you move, you better move to, like, California because I do travel.” Source
