Debt Collectors Are Far Too Well-Employed

by Aaron Bochenek
(Slidell, LA USA)

Response to news article in The Miami Herald:

I see debt collectors in the same way I see IRS agents. They are good people, performing a terrible job that is mostly considered a necessary evil.

In this article, it is said that while other industries flounder along in a rough economy, the debt collection industry is having to hire more people to handle the ever-increasing workload.

I see this as very unfortunate, but I also understand why it must be done. Even though somebody has lost their job, their home, or their car, it is still required that they pay their debts to their creditors.

As much as I can't stand debt collection, (I have been on the wrong end of their phone calls, it is no fun), I am able to see that what they are doing is fundamental to order and discipline in our economy. Somebody has to provide the muscle or else debts would go unpaid and the trust upon which our modern capitalist system is based will break.

Personally, I'm all for people having jobs, but I don't want to see one more person hired as a debt collector. Their employment is someone else's lost dream.

Debt collectors may be intimidating and relentless, but anything is better than the punishment for delinquency before 1800: being sent to debtors' prison.