Agreed. This feels a lot like the home lending crisis leading up to 2009. People taking out loans for far more than they could afford with interest only loans, ARMs, etc., or taking out large home equity loans for consumer purchases. What it speaks to is a huge lack of financial literacy.

I do feel for people in this situation, particularly those who are driven to the home equity loans due to unfortunate events, like cancer, in their personal lives. But I feel that it needs to be said that there's a not insignificant number of people who are caught in these situations precisely because they failed to plan and have contingency money set aside, instead spending to keep up with the Joneses.