^^^This^^^ Exactly! If I (we) take out a loan, or invest our own money into a risky investment, such as a fly by night flight school, or buy a house in FL in early 2007, with the intent to flip it; then sh!t out of our control happens, ie. 9/11, flight school goes belly up, housing market collapses, I (WE) are the ones stuck holding the bag. No one bails us out. The only options are to suck up the losses, or just dump the debt into BK, or straight default. But that still doesn't just go unnoticed, with bad credit hits lingering on the credit reports for 7 to 10 yrs, and not being able to get credit. We either suck up and pay the loss, or take the credit hit in BK or default (7 yr hangout plan).

Yet, the banks make the same risky investments when they push loans and extend lines of credit to risky borrowers. Except, they will be damned to get caught holding the bag. They'll hire debt collectors to harass you, write it off as a tax loss and sell the debts to junk debt buyers, and / or get a government bailout. Funny how when the average street consumer makes a bad financial decision, or has an unexpected unfortunate life event happen, they are considered an irresponsible dead beat. But when a bank or corporation does it, it's just business as usual, and good ole' Uncle Sam comes to the rescue of their moral and fiduciary irresponsible actions.
/rant.