Bankruptcy

If You Can't Make Money On Heart Surgery, Then This Is a Depression! Arizona Heart Institute Files Bankruptcy!

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

And they never expected to file a personal consumer bankruptcy because of the debt they guaranteed with the Small Business Administration; and a lot of 'em don't even understand that the SBA took a mortgage on the family home when it gave 'em the dough.

But I get it. If you have a rice bowl, and working half days (twelve hours, get it?) for nine days a week has kept that rice bowl full for you, your family, and all your employees, for twenty or thirty years, you're going to be sad when the rice bowl is broken by a depressed economy.

And the formerly friendly bank has been replaced by the currently unfriendly collection lawyer.

Heck, the most frequent symptoms that I hear from folks contemplating a bankruptcy for the family business start with sleepless nights, move to high blood pressure, and go on from there. Anxiety breeds physical symptoms, and they aren't pretty.

Some businesses have historically been fairly resistant to rollercoaster economies in the United States.

Sin of all sorts generally seems to make for a profitable business, because many of us gotta be bad to have a good time, at one level or another.

So tobacco stores, liquor stores, massage parlors, gentleman's clubs, gambling dens of all descriptions, and pornography businesses often continue to do well even when there are dips in the economy.

But this is no ordinary dip in the economy. The real jobless rate is around twenty and climbing, and the official jobless rate is hovering around 9.5%.

So I have written about pole-dance palaces and booze castles pulling up their drawbridges and closing court.

And when you can't make money peddling hootch and sex, you know it's a depression.

One other item generally sells pretty well during good times and bad: life.

Fear of the darkness impels spending on medical stuff when there are many other bills to pay, because if you're not going survive the end of your long-playing record, what do you care whether the car payment gets paid?

You know?

Putting it another way, you may put off fun, however you define it, but you are somewhat unlikely to put off treatment for your heart attack.

So when I heard that The Arizona Heart Institute had filed a bankruptcy, I knew that the economy in the United States had hit a new low, and wasn't going up anytime soon.

You can put off your next drink until it's five o'clock somewhere, right? You can ration your ciggies; you can let Amber buy her own drinks at the Gentleman's Club (I know it's difficult, guys, but man up!).

You can put off the trip to Vegas, especially because they'll literally, actually put you in prison for years for non-payment of a gambling marker, as though you had written a bad check; I love it when a business that sells loss of control cops a judgmental attitude. About your bad behavior, you bad person! How dare you gamble with money you didn't have!

After all the advertising we did to entice you to gamble with money you didn't have!

Sorry, got carried away.

But you can put off buying a new car, a new bottle of booze, a new date with Summer at the pole-dancing emporium, or a new cigar.

It's a little more difficult to put off your next heartbeat.

So if the Arizona Heart Institute filed a bankruptcy, we know it's a depression.

And if bankruptcy is good enough for the best chance you had to survive when the big one hit, why should you expect your rice bowl, which doesn't even sell sex, or life, or booze, to survive well during a depression?

Do not let shame keep you from making a good decision about filing a bankruptcy, either a personal consumer bankruptcy or a small business bankruptcy, whether a Chapter 7, a Chapter 13, a Chapter 11, or a Chapter 12. The stigma of bankruptcy is now over and done.

If bankruptcy was required at the Arizona Heart Institute, you have nothing to be ashamed of.

Even dangling participles.

p.s. seems to me if the Arizona Heart Institute filed a bankruptcy, other health care options may start getting a little on the iffy side. I have a little health, antiaging and longevity blog that talks about vitamin c and fish oil, and doesn't try to sell you anything. So if you want to look at it, bear in mind that it's My Favorite Price: Free!

But always talk to your doctor, not some Arizona bankruptcy attorney, about health issues!
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NOTHING HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY LAWYER WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE. NOTHING HERE MAY BE USED AS LEGAL ADVICE IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BANKRUPTCY, WHETHER THAT BANKRUPTCY IS IN PHOENIX, GLENDALE, TEMPE, MESA, SCOTTSDALE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on August 07, 2010 (boomark / email).