You're so right about the domino effect. I'd never really thought about it in that way before, but there were so many opportunities for the system to redeem itself, and it failed at every turn. Except, of course, the turns that involved us forking over money. It is indeed a broken system and it's hard for people who have never been caught up it in (like me, before all this) to truly fathom the extent to which it can ruin your life -- all in the name of "justice."