Because of the economic status that we have today many are loosing their jobs because of company lay-offs. You cannot blame them for being desperate to find some kind of financial resource. Plus the fact there are new financial administering in the banks. In the last year or so, there have been greater calls for consumer protection and for financial regulation. Obama created the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, but some think that financial regulation might be detrimental, or perhaps it should be handled by courts. Other government agencies have been shown to be too susceptible to interested parties, for instance Big Pharma's involvement with the FDA. On the other side, court decisions are ambiguous at best - one judge won't rule the same as another, as the law is not an exact science in the least. This leaves any financial regulation and debt relief for consumers kind of up in the air for the foreseeable future.