About “Debt” Blogging and Disdain – My Take

Like I said previously, it takes me some time to get to various interesting posts due to the way I tend to make my rounds among blogs.

American Debt Project wrote a very interesting post a couple of months back where she ruminates on the disdain that “debt” bloggers get from some of the other “more responsible” PF bloggers.

I confess to similar thoughts crossing the back of my mind when certain bloggers get a tad too self-congratulatory, and have to constantly remind myself that not everyone had the same lucky circumstances that I did to end up with no debt*.

*I probably should disclaim here that I have no consumer debt but a humongous mortgage of close to 1.2 million on my investment condominium. But that is another story.

However, it also seems to me that quite a number “debt” bloggers are no strangers to dishing out the same disdain to their non-PF blogging peers. I quite often see rants on “debt” blogs about how their co-workers, family and friends etc, (heck, even strangers in the media) “don’t get it”, how horribly in debt these people are, how much they spend on wants, how they dine out every day, how they send their kids to private school when they cannot afford it, how close they are to bankruptcy…

Some are gracious enough to admit that they used to be the same, but then go on to say “Hey, I was bad, but not this bad!”, which feels like a justification for them thinking these thoughts about their less financially savvy, non-PF blogging peers.

It feels rather like a person who suddenly found religion putting down the non-religious people that h/she used to hang out with all the time.

I think then that it is disingenous for “debt” bloggers to complain about the disdain they get from the other PF bloggers if they are also treating other indebted persons the same way, just because the other people have yet to receive their “Come to Heaven” messages.

If nothing else, the wealth bloggers have at least consistency in actions and opinions on their side. The “debt” bloggers also have the internet as a medium to get back to the wealth bloggers to question or correct their stance (such as ADP’s post). They, however, do not afford the non-blogging people they criticize on their blogs the same.

So before the “debt” bloggers start on the other PF bloggers for “hating on” them, perhaps it is worthwhile for the “debt” bloggers to consider whether they themselves have been “hating on” others in similar positions that they have been in.