Our buddies over at GetRichSlowly, a site which I generally recommend, recently posted an on crowd funding which did not please its readership.   Basically, some dude names Eric Estrada (no relation) feels his family has been doing good saving money and therefore is justified in asking strangers to help pay off his mortgage.  This went over like a lead balloon in the comments section.

The article is prefaced by GRS’s hemming and hawing about whether to post Eric’s plea.  I’m not sure what actually tipped the scales in favor of posting it but it was done under the guise of a discussion about crowd funding (basically asking the Internet crowd to fund whatever it is you want by getting a large number of small contributions from the group).

Many users pointed out that this goes entirely against the grain of GRS, as well as the name of the site itself.  I agree.  While I think it smacks of bad taste to ask people to pay your debts, it’s certainly legal for Eric to ask.  But as a site founded on the idea of personal responsibility and paying down debts slowly and methodically, GRS should have known better than to put this one through.

What are your thoughts?  Was this article irresponsible?  What about the request itself?