People don't do it lightly, they do it because they are desperate and realistically the only consequence they really face is a crappy credit score. They are okay with that... many already have tanked credit before they start this.
Once millions of people have bad credit scores and bankruptcies in their credit histories, the social stigma of a bad creditor gets diluted. That becomes a self-reinforcing process. The more individuals default, the less defaulting looks bad.
I believe that it was social and moral norms rather than clear cut financial analyses that stopped people from defaulting. It seems those moral norms have changed.
People have simply lost faith in the system. They don't care about being nice little creditors, wrought by guilt if they overspent or made bad financial decisions, when the government is handing out hundreds of billions to to-big-to-fail banks.
Then as if mocking everyone, banks go ahead and hand out tens of millions as bonuses to their CEOs.
I cannot see anyone watching this circus feeling too guilty about screwing up and then not paying back $10000. Everyone, wants a bailout.
