Oh I have no doubt we will be hearing about these middle-class big spender exceptions to the general rule about financial hardship in America. Fact is, that is the way the neo-liberal yellow press will talk about such things, so as to show, with quite a broad brush, that none of the borrowers deserve help. They've done this time and again and there's no reason to believe this time will be any different.

Given current trends in health insurance in America today, in addition to the coming wave of unemployment and the impact this will have on family stability, I find it hard to believe, though, that middle-class profiligacy will be anything more than the seriously minoritarian exception to the rule it always has been viz. financial distress in America.

My larger point is that playing into this rightwing rhetorical frame is severely counterproductive. Unless, of course, you're not playing on the same side.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill