When Family is Involved, Suicide is Never the Solution

This story had me torn when I first read it. Do I expend all my anger on the dead father? Or do I torch a copy of Das Kapital and burn down the world's banking institutions with it? Unfortunately, the more I think about it, the more I consider the dad a real selfish prick.

It's not an unusual story, sadly. Robert McKinnie of the Isle of Wight was a hard-working family man and electrician with his own business. A failing business. Creditors were reportedly hounding the man day and night, demanding their pounds of flesh off of his bare skeleton. Unable to bear the stress any longer, McKinnie killed himself.

I'm sorry, but I want to resurrect this bastard from the dead, shake him by his chest hair, and demand, "What's the matter with you?!" Okay, things are hard. Life sucks. But your Final Exit has left your family to deal with a mess that, in some part, you helped create. You may be "at peace", dude, but your wife and kids are the ones left behind to figure out how to pay for your funeral costs with a mountain of debt and no insurance benefit. The only way your last act of life could have been more reprehensible would be if you had taken them with you.

I know what it's like to be on the debtor end of credit collections. I can only imagine that pressure  multiplies a hundred-fold when you're talking debts to suppliers and small-business bank loans. It must have been a cruel daily torture. But are you telling me that there were zero options short of suicide? Sorry, I don't buy it. There's always a way forward, even if it's not the path you'd prefer to travel.

It's times like these that you ought to cleave most closely to your family, and seek professional help if you find yourself entertaining the notion that you'd be better off dead. This dad failed to do that. And now, his family has to bear his burden.

(And just so you don't think I'm leaving capitalism off the hook entirely, boo to those creditors who are still harassing his wife. Jesus, guys, the poor woman has the world on her shoulders, and you're still piling on the crosses. Could she at least put her husband in the ground before you start pressing her for cash again?)