While I agree we should do our best to pay our debts, morality shifts with circumstances. If I have an enough debt where it is affecting the lives and future of my children and I have an option to declare bankruptcy to give them a better life, am I not morally obligated to do so as a parent? I would argue that I am.
Morality is a human defined concept. We also only seem to apply it to individuals, a company declares bankruptcy, fires a large number of employees and then rights itself society shrugs but if a person does it we cast shame on them.
Life is short, if I dig myself into a whole with the best of intentions, I am not going to spend years living a lesser life and condemning my kids to that same lesser life if there is a reset button.
Morality is human defined, but it's the set of ideas that, along with a society's institutions, distinguishes a well functioning society from a corrupt and dysfunctional one. It's the set of memes that allows us to function at the massive group scales that we operate at, that allows us to trust strangers to run things that are vital to our own survival. And when that breaks down, and people start acting in their short-sighted self interest (or you think you see them doing that, anyway), you start seeing that trust crack. I think we've been seeing that happening in the US for a while, and I think corporatism separated from a sense of decency and personal accountability while at work is a large part of the cause.
I don't think that it's right for a company to do what you describe wantonly. I absolutely think we should shame companies when they mistreat people.
And what you're describing with your children is selfish, but it's an understandable selfishness - your children are of course going to be a higher priority to you than society at large, as it is with almost all parents.
Anyway, my idea about the obligations of fulfilling one's debts seems to be an unpopular one, and I'm sure I won't change anyone's mind, especially if they've chosen to take on a lot of debt themselves, so I'll stop here.
Morality is a human defined concept. We also only seem to apply it to individuals, a company declares bankruptcy, fires a large number of employees and then rights itself society shrugs but if a person does it we cast shame on them.
Life is short, if I dig myself into a whole with the best of intentions, I am not going to spend years living a lesser life and condemning my kids to that same lesser life if there is a reset button.