[sgift]

I have the feeling that your cousins experience clouds your judgement here. From all that I've read the count of people who file bankruptcy multiple times is very low as is the count of people who file because of irresponsibility. There are usually very valid reasons (loose your job, get sick, good luck!)

For your example: That is exactly the reason that Kickstarter is not a preorder service, but project funding. There is always a risk that you won't get anything for the money you've invested and you are expected to consider these risks. That's also part of the reasons that professional lenders expect a certain rate of interest (another part of the interest rate is obviously for the fact that the lender could do something else with his money if he didn't lend it). If you have a higher risk, you pay more. So, if you fault multiple times you won't find anyone who will give you money anymore in the future or they will want more interest or they will want some securities .. and so on. I don't see how that somehow makes debt guilt. It is debt. Are you expected to pay it back? Yes. What if you cannot pay it back and you would be crushed under the weight of it? Don't pay it, go bankrupt and your lenders will have to pay the price of their risk-taking.

My point stands that there's a reason we've abolished debtors' prisons: Debt is not guilt.