Boston Globe Finishes Attack Series on Debt Collectors

by Mike Bevel CollectionIndustry.com

On some level, you want to love the Boston Globe — the scrappy little paper that thinks it can. But?

The Globe is finishing up its four part series on the evils of the debt collection industry. In the last and final episode, the Globe wades deep into cliché territory and holds our hands as it tells us that sometimes debt collectors meet in Las Vegas. ?Las Vegas? in this scenario is a metaphor for ?evil den of inequity? rather than ?Home of the Celine Dion Mega Concert? and ?Base Camp for Cirque de Soleil.?

The Globe was present for 2005?s debt buyers? conference, where they were shocked and appalled that companies out there might make money buying debt. Were it within their power, no doubt, the Globe would send each and every reader a set of pearls with which to commence pearl clutching.

?[Debtors] generally owe the money,? the Globe generously proffers. But they?re not happy that anyone out there might want to be paid that money.

The Globe worried that there?s some sort of karmic unbalance, with debt buyers and debt collectors holding some unfair advantage over debtors. Never mind, apparently, that the debtors may have had a hand in their own situation; that?s merely happenstance. Instead, the Globe winsomely worries about the ?eerie silence among regulators, policy makers, and legislators.?

It?s curious, though not surprising, the Globe?s stance on this issue. It?s easier, of course, to see no fault on the part of the original debtor ? the individual who entered into a financial agreement with the original creditor; a creditor, it should be pointed out, since the Globe won?t, who is now out of pocket the cash owed. Instead, the Globe wants more regulations on debt buyers and collectors rather than any sort of holistic approach to debt education among debtors.

Education, it seems, doesn?t sell as many papers.

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