Okay, I'm imagining it. So what? There is a debate to be had about what sorts of protections we want to provide to debtors. But that's separate and apart from the existence of companies that specialize in debt collection. The latter is simply an example of economic specialization.

The problem everyone has getting their mind around debt collection is that they focus on the after-the-fact situation, instead of the whole picture. If companies cannot collect on debt, they will be less willing to extend credit. When you "help" one person who can't pay their debt, you're hurting several people in the future who won't be extended credit.

Student loans are a good illustration of this. People clamor to make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy--citing examples of people with hundreds of thousands of dollars in crippling debt. But the median American doesn't have any student debt, and the median debt for people who do is just $30,000. Now as a practical matter, student loan forgiveness would just impact taxpayers, since almost all student debt is owed to the federal government. But if it was a normal debt market, making student loans--which are offered without any security--dischargeable in bankruptcy would cause student loans to dry up for everyone, even the vast majority of people who take on modest, manageable debt.