Ok- now I'm pissed

I just heard that the US Senate has killed the minimum wage amendment that they had attached to the Bankruptcy bill. This ticks me off for several reasons. And not just because I had to mention the US Senate in a sentence.

First, for those who don't know- I worked for over a year in the Bankruptcy Collections unit for Bank One credit cards. It was an interesting job. I closed accounts when people declared bankruptcy. I also sent accounts to legal when obvious bankruptcy fraud had occurred. I filed claims if the bankruptcy was a Chapter 13. It was kind of cool learning the system. But the main lesson that I learned is that people don't handle credit very well. This new legislation will really fuck over the consumer. It is sponsered by the banks in order to make it more difficult for consumers to discharge debts. Now my issue is this- credit cards are sooo damned agressive in courting customers. And they know damned good and well that plenty of those people have no business getting cards. They have access to online credit reports and review these prior to issuing the cards. So it's really obvious when people are having problems. I know- I was also in regular collections for a while (I hope I only have to spend a minimum amount of time in hell for that). So, rather than not issue cards to people with spending problems, they just want to make it harder for them to solve the problem after they've gotten the cards, charged them up and gone delinquent on them.

I have a real hard time feeling sorry for banks. And this will probably make it a surefire thing that I won't ever work in one again. I was told that bankruptcy charge offs were nothing more than a tax write off, and that it was worth having customers who couldn't pay because of the fees that the company could charge for late payments, and the higher interest rates that they could charge poor payers. It is a scam. And yes, I have cards, and use them on occasion- but nowhere like I did before working for the MAN.

Ok- bitch #2 about the amendment. So, the banks have a license to fuck the consumer, without any recourse in bankruptcy for some of them. Great. So NOW how is consumer Joe gonna pay his debts? According to NPR, the minimum wage is at the lowest percentage compared to the private minimum wage ($15/hr) in 70 years. It's one third of that. And the Senate has voted over $28,000 in wage increases for THEMSELVES in the last several years. That's more than two minimum wage holders make in an entire year of working 40 hours per week. Is this fair? Why the hell is it that a senator's contribution to society is deemed more important than someone trying to keep themselves out of debt and in a decent home? It's already enough of a struggle to keep it together financially- God forbid we help consumer Joe and his family out a bit. I gotta hand it to Teddy Kennedy (And I don't always do this for him)- he was pretty outraged about this discrepancy as well. It's crap.