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To: Ilaine who wrote (2644)	11/8/2002 9:09:08 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 6901

CB, to make you feel better about it, I spent a lot of time ensuring deadbeats didn't get the goods without paying. In defence of your deadbeats, the creditors often have a much bigger level of blame that they should take than they think. I was very good at getting customers on the straight and narrow. Different salespeople and creditors have different attitudes. The very same customers can be very good customers or very bad ones, depending on how they are handled. The law is to get balance between creditors, debtors and the wider community. Creditors don't need to lend money or deliver goods before payment. It's a choice they make. When they make that choice, they are taking the responsibility for deciding that the person is a good credit risk. They are paying the person a compliment. They should not lightly or falsely pay people compliments which are undeserved. A lot of people are hopeless at managing their own money, let alone somebody else's. They depend on others around them to control events because they can't control them themselves and just take take take and do anything they are inclined to do because, well, for many reasons. I had a particular customer who blamed BP for getting him into debt. He told me it was their fault for delivering product when he couldn't pay. My job was getting the money [he'd been a problem before I got the job]. I could see his point. It was true. He was incompetent to manage money [or much of anything]. BP should NOT have given him product before they got the cash on the barrelhead. Anyway, over a period of time we whittled away and eventually got it paid [maybe there was a bit left unpaid] and he sold the business, which helped get us most of the money. I'm not saying he shouldn't have to pay, but I think it reasonable that creditors take responsibility for their decision to offer credit. USA bankruptcy laws acknowledge that with the Chapter 11 stuff saying a company can stay in charge of the assets even if bust. The government doesn't want businesses shut down and unemployment boosted because of credit mismanagement. Creditors get the assets, but not before the bankruptcy court takes a look at the wider implications. If there are loopholes, such as "Yer honor, I haven't got enough money to feed the missus and the kids AND pay the bills", I wouldn't be surprised if the one extending the credit isn't told that they'll have to eat the bill. I don't see why you should feel bad about people using loopholes if they are there. I loaned a good friend $22,000 to finish building an aircraft which he'd been struggling with for years. He's hopeless with money. I got a mortgage to secure payment. To cut a long story short, he signed a sale and purchase agreement unbeknownst to me, with expensive penalties for default. I agreed that he could sell, knowing that the sale price probably wouldn't recover my loan. He stopped paying and I ended up with about $4,000 unpaid. I considered legal action, but decided the loophole of friendship and my bad judgement in extending credit with inadequate security was sufficient that I'd let it go. One of the very few bad debts I ever had, including many hundreds of customers. Bad judgement by the creditor. As with most creditors, they find reasons why they don't owe the money. Or they paid in kind, or interest rates were too high or something or they lost the records or whatever. Catch me lending money to a friend again? Not likely. As they say, you lose your money AND the friend. If the law says they don't owe it, then they don't owe it! Tell the creditors to tighten up their lending criteria and payment ideas and security. You should whistle while you work on that one! If Jay Chen is right, you are going to be doing a LOT of whistling over the next few years as creditors lose their money. Anyone lending money ought to be reviewing their ideas about credit right now. I am [I'm holding US$, loaned to ASBBank Ltd - arrrggggghhhhhh. What to do? What to do?] Mqurice