Now I know most European countries like Greece, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany etc. are all about high taxes and spending money on programs that are very socialist in nature. This is fine if everyone in the country is down for it, and will pay for it, but the thing is most people don’t want to pay for it and so a lot of these countries have debt loads that are like more than 100% of their GDP sometimes in the 2s and 3s depending on the metric, or their bankrupt apparently (i.e. Greece). Those big spending european socialist countries are all like way up there compared to the rest of the world in debt, they make the U.S. look pretty efficient spenders in fact. I don’t think countries like Sweeden or Denmark are any different from the rest of western Europe as far as socialist spending priorities are concerned, but they seem to carry a far lower debt load, lower than the United States in fact. How do they do it? Is it because they spend basically nothing on defense (because who the hell is going to attack Sweden? The Pittsburgh Penguins?) Have they figured out a way to get people to pay for socialist programs that put a disincentive on them to make enough money to fork over the money necessary to do that? Do people just make a lot of money there anyway, and there aren’t as many poor people leeching off the system in comparison? Really, what are the Scandinavians doing that the rest of the world can learn? I’m not dissing socialism here, this is an honest question, because they might be on to something.

Technorati Tags: 2s, 3s, bankrupt, debt load, debt loads, enough money, european countries, gdp, honest question, penguins, pittsburgh penguins, priorities, rest of the world, scandinavians, socialism, socialist countries, spenders, spending money, sweeden, western europe

I am 23 years old, in college part time and working part time. I am recently divorced and have about ,000 in loans and credit card bills I got stuck with that were all aqquired during the marriage. Since I can only afford minimum payments (and receive no financial aid) I feel like I should look into bankruptcy.
I have two credit cards, so If I file bankruptcy on just my loans (,000) and one credit card, does keeping the one credit card plus an account balance with Dell (for a laptop I financed) help my credit score at all, as opposed to filing on everything I owe?
And everyone says to do it before I get any older if I’m going to do it. And I don’t expect any new bills (I have a dependable car and low rent) anytime soon.
Sometimes I feel like bankruptcy is "cheating" but I had an extra income at the time I signed for the loans, and of course didn’t expect to get divorced. I feel helpless, as the balances barely go down and i’m spending money I need to live, or I’m going to have to quit school.

Technorati Tags: 23 years, account balance, bankruptcy, college part time, credit card bills, credit cards, credit score, dell, dependable car, extra income, financial aid, laptop, loans, low rent, marriage, minimum payments, spending money