Just met a Filipino mom at Costco the other day — working $18USD an hour, $10,000 in debt … her son works at Google but she refuses to ask him for help or to pay off her debt?
I think she also got 3 kids?
The ethics:
First, she got into serious credit card debt, revolving debt in order to pay groceries, rent, other expenses being a single mom with 3 kids. Thus, the *cause* of her debt was raising the kids (dad divorced 3 times, remarried 3 times).
Thus, it seems the logical ethical thing is this:
If your mom went into debt raising your ass, you *MUST* repay or pay off *her* debt.
For example I think a lot about my mom. How she went bankrupt, went into insane debt to raise me and my sister.
Issues:
First, my dad would gamble away the rent money. He would tell my mom that he was gonna “pay” it himself, but he went off to Reno in the middle of the night, often wouldn’t come back for 3-4 days, sometimes even a week… and say he was “earning” money (he was really gambling), then would come home without the rent money.
What privileged kids don’t understand—
If you were raised in a home with a dad who didn’t work, who just stayed at home all day, smoked cigarettes, watched TV and movies, and you have more or less a single mom raising two kids by herself *AND* your dad is gambling away *her* hard-earned rent money … what is gonna happen to you?