How Bill Bartmann Gets it Wrong

Dear Bill Bartmann,

I read with interest your recent post on The Huffington Post. You’ve created a persona; you want to be The Regulator; you’re in bed with Oklahoma — and you give terrible advice.

I had a brief tenure in social work in my early 20s. Early 20s are the best time to be in social work because one is still fresh and unjaded and hopeful that the world can be changed with nothing but the sword of social justice and a pocketful of good intentions. Then, in your second week on the job, an older, wiser social worker will teach you a very important phrase:

“I’m sorry…however.”

“I’m sorry…however” works like this: “I’m sorry you missed the bus and were thirty minutes late for our session. However, I don’t have an appointment available now. You’ll have to reschedule.” Or: “I’m sorry you don’t have the right documentation for the program. However, we have to follow the rules for all participants. It’s how we keep things fair. When you have the right documents, I’ll be glad to see you.”

It’s alright to empathize. We’re humans, we connect, in fact E.M. Forster tells us to “only connect” in Howards End. But empathy doesn’t come with a “Get Out of Responsibility Free” card. But that seems to be what you’re pushing.

You take this statement — “About $1.12 trillion of consumer debt is currently delinquent, with $824 billion seriously delinquent” — and couple it with some additional information: “In 2000, about seven percent of U.S. consumers were subject to debt collection with an average amount owed of about $800. By the end of 2011, the number had grown to 14 percent of consumers, with an average amount owed of $1,400.”

Then you reach a conclusion:

“Let’s now run that through a robot-to-human translator:

• The targets for debt collectors have doubled in the last decade, and
• The size of the targets on their backs has grown by 75 percent, which means…
• The United States is one target-rich environment for debt collectors to continue to wreak their havoc.”

We’ve dealt with a pretty choppy economy. We’ve watched our house values plummet to ludicrous levels. (Overheard at my house recently: “Essentially, our house is the same value as a buy-one-get-one-free offer from the 7-11 down the street.”) There have been a lot of pressures on wallets and budgets and our souls — yes. Yes. That’s all true.

We’re still responsible for the financial agreements we make. We’re responsible for those decisions even when they’re not smart ones. We should be treated with respect while dealing with these issues, sure. But we shouldn’t be given a blank check with which to write off the bad decisions we’ve made.

And that’s essentially what you’re suggesting.

In your second career as a self-appointed advocate for those railing against collection agencies (which is what you are; or did you forget?) you’ve made a lot of hay out of demonizing your colleagues. You have a site called “Stop These Criminals” (which might be a brilliant example of irony, considering the fate of your first company, CFS I). You’re able to easily make political allies because you’re not asking for any accountability from consumers. And it’s consumers who can vote and put constituents into office. You seem less interested in protecting consumers than you seem in filling out your political rolodex.

Your suggestion that consumers want a candidate that’ll get collection agents to stop calling may be a suggestion that makes sense — to consumers. But it doesn’t make sense to business and industry, the two things that’ll help get the economy back on track. They have bills to pay, too, and made what they thought were solid agreements with consumers to pay for the goods and services delivered. When consumers avoid those responsibilities — for whatever flavor of reason you want to come up with — it isn’t helpful to anyone.

Except you. Because ultimately that’s who you’re out for. Not stopping criminals. Not educating consumers about debt. You’re out to create powerful allies for CFS II. So: what’s really changed about Bill Bartmann between CFS I and CFS II? That’s a question we’d all like to know the answer to.

Sincerely,

insideARM.com