As a mental experiment, let's imagine there were debtors' prisons in the US.
Do you think this would restrain consumer credit card/mortgage borrowing and prevent people form getting into the current mess?
Do you think this would restrain consumer credit card/mortgage borrowing and prevent people form getting into the current mess?
"She puts me in touch with Richard, a twinkly fortysomething who came to Dubai as a salesman with a multinational company. 'And then, in one month, I had a car accident, lost my job, and my marriage fell apart.'
Richard fell behind on his car payments, his bank loans, his credit cards. 'Everybody lives beyond their means here. It's all front. It's like Dubai - a totally false appearance to what it actually is.' He was charged by the police with defaulting on his loans and his passport was confiscated. 'So I couldn't get another job and I couldn't pay the debt, and I couldn't leave the country... and to cut a very long story short, I got 12 months.'
It's quite a story. He's only been out two weeks, but he's still managing just about to smile. But not even the judges are Emiratis: they're on short-stay visas like everyone else, and the only thing he had going in his favour, he says, is that he wasn't Asian. 'Tons of them are in for practically nothing: jaywalking or owing £10.'"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/05/middleeast.gende...