Obviously, one should not blame a murder/rape victim
Have you read the terms and conditions of buy-now-pay-later companies? I think the clearest takeaway from this article is that people aren't well informed.
Note that in cases where people go into debt for much more unavoidable reasons ("her husband got cancer and racked up a million dollars in medical bills before he died", "she was born into poverty and had to start work as a waitress at a young age to keep a roof over her sibling's heads"), people are much less likely to victim-blame, because those cases are much more legitimately victims.
Who is the moral arbiter of what kind of debt is/isn't valid. Everyone on here is pretending like people are perfectly informed about how these companies collect on their debts, but the nature of this article suggests there's more behind the scenes from these companies.
If I open up "xracy's murder tools" am I responsible for people who buy things from me to murder people? Surely not, surely it's only on the people who didn't read the terms and conditions in my store that explicitly state you can't use my tool's to murder people.
These companies are offering people one-off credit cards without actually stating that. That's shady business at best, and actively misleading at worst. Surely they're to blame for misleading promises. I would bet dollars to donuts also that in the next few years it'll come out they have other shady practices too...
People consent to giving people their money all the time, and it is still illegal and immoral if the person offering deceived them. OR maybe you're a phisher and you think there's nothing wrong with phishing...
Ftx claimed a token they made up had value and it didn't. Everyone knew the token was made up
Things like gambling, pay day loans, credit cards, buy now pay later are all forms of predatory behaviour and are in that way similar to rape/murder but considerably less grievous. The threshold for victim blaming is alot less in these situations but you certainly still could.
I don't think you should admonish someone for victim blaming here or make out they're equivalent to rape or murder, they're clearly not.
Is the person who built his house upon the sand to blame or is he an innocent victim of the people who sold him the land, the bricks, the plans and the labour?
Mostly because it's at least drawing people to consider there is another side to this.
They're not victims. They knew the risks and decided to venture.
There are similar parallels with ancient Sparta. Back then, boys were soldiers by mandate, and were taught to steal from local farms. They were whipped for getting caught - not for theft. Theft was encouraged, getting caught was severely punished.
Just interesting things to consider that come to my mind. Especially because I think banks may turn out to be Pinnochio in the story and we the thieves in the long run. ;)