Accounting Insolvency

Finance a la' Shmoop what is bankruptcy well in the old days

this was bankruptcy you'd go to prison if you couldn't pay your bills and [People in prison for bankruptcy]

unfortunately there weren't and still aren't a lot of legal high wage earning

opportunities in prison working your way out of debt on the chain gang wasn't [Prisoners working outside]

really a thing back then so instead the burden would be on your family to pay

back the loan you'd promised to pay back and didn't ugly situation it paved the [Officer knocking on a prisoners family member to pay their debts]

way for some well today bankruptcy has a range of flavors that it comes in but

basically it exists as a legal vehicle to avoid the aforementioned situation a [Bankruptcy van driving]

bankrupt person and/or corporation stands in front of a judge they turn

their pockets inside out with a sad face and the judge then decide who will be [Person opens their pockets inside out in front of a judge]

paid when and how much well how does she decide the order for who gets paid back

when? well, it usually prioritizes employees and vendors owed a paycheck

above banks who have made a loan and under that umbrella all different types

of loans have different priorities if the bankrupt individual owns a home it's [bankrupt individual in his home on the toilet reading a newspaper]

usually sold out from under him and anything left after paying off the

mortgage is used to pay others even if you do survive a bankruptcy your credit

is pretty much ruined who's going to want to loan you money once you've

proven that you're not good with being loaned money yeah if you've defaulted in [a really low credit score chart for a bankrupt individual]

the past on promises to pay people back why wouldn't you do the same thing again

well remember that twenty dollars you loaned your buddy Eric that he never [Person loaning 20 dollars to friend Eric

paid back well how eager are you going to be to hook him up with another twenty

especially since you'd only be feeding his betting on frog fighting habit yeah [Eric betting money on frog fighting]

not so much so long Eric you'll get the help you need!