A $221,385.49 problem

Before the Founding Fathers agreed on enumerating the right to free speech in the Constitution, or religion, or the right to bear arms, they agreed on something else: the establishment of federal bankruptcy law.

• Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, ratified by the 13 original colonies between 1787 and 1790, says Congress has the power to establish “uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.”

• However, the Bill of Rights, including the individual rights we take for granted as Americans today, wasn’t fully ratified until 1791, a full year later.

I've always found it interesting that they did this first. My understanding is that it wasn’t because they were particularly fond of debtors who might have to file for bankruptcy.

Rather, they didn’t want individual states to pass their own bankruptcy laws that might actually be more pro-debtor.

Regardless, they took it for granted: there has to be a system of bankruptcy, because sometimes it’s the only way for pe…