For those of you who wonder why we need bankruptcy laws, there is an excellent essay about income inequality in today's Star Tribune by my colleague Ronald Lundquist.
I think we'd all like to live in a world where no one ever has to file bankrutpcy. We do need the bankruptcy safety net if we want to live in a society that encourages entrepreneurship and job creation (otherwise, it would be too risky to start a business). But the sad byproduct of delining wages and salaries is that we may be about to see an uptick in bankruptcy filings by regular, hard-working employees.