Bankruptcy Boom

continued

Even bankruptcy may not be a way out for some folks. “Now you see people getting a discharge, but they don’t have a way to make life better,” says Ellmann. “Where are you going to get a job? Where are you going to live? Bankruptcy affords relief, but where do you go from there when there’s nowhere to go?

“What has been in the offing for a long time has now come to fruition, and we’re seeing some of society crumbling around us.”

Basil Simon, bankruptcy trustee for Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, wholeheartedly agrees. “It’s a bad situation all around, and I haven’t seen any sign that it’s bottomed out,” he says. “And now, with Chrysler and GM [in bankruptcy], I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“It’s really depressing,” Simon adds. “And it’s not just blue collar now; it’s professional. I’m used to seeing women cry, but now I’ve seen men cry—engineers, lawyers, men who thought they’d always have a job.”   

[Originally published in July, 2009.]