It is distressing to longtime law-abiding, bill-paying citizens to keep seeing those television presentations indicating how easy it might be to beat the government or some credit company out of a lot of money.

Picture that middle-aged man with a smug look who notes that he was in debt to the Internal Revenue Service for $150,000. But, then, glory be, he contacted the agency that is sponsoring the commercial and got his debt sliced, in a hurry, to less than $50,000. Who is making up for that amount? Could it be the rest of the citizenry that has been meeting its obligations without some under-the-table operator adjusting things?

There are other TV spots about taxpayers who owe $50,000 or so getting home scot-free because they turned to the service that is being huckstered.

Somewhere along the line, it would seem, these people who have been spared so much of their own money probably ran up the bills they are assessed with, by not paying all the taxes they owe and then trying to find some loophole to lighten the load. Take $50,000 or so out of the U.S. Treasury and it only means the rest of us have to ante up to make up the difference so the government can meet its expenses.

Credit agencies, also, are good at trying to make the public believe that they can get a huge card debt greatly reduced or even eliminated by dealing with their agents. In the recent down surge, some credit card firms have allowed such activity and then sold the rights to the outstanding bills to companies that specialize in such. Somehow all this smacks of one of the major reasons we are in our current financial mess: Issuing loans, such as for housing, to people who are not really eligible and then hoping someone else picks up the pieces when foreclosures occur.

After credit companies are able to peddle their bad-performing accounts, they have to make up the difference some way, such as through higher interest rates that affect everyone, sadly even those who pay their bills on time and who have good credit standing.

And all this is done with “someone else’s money,” as analysts keep insisting. People who have access to the money of others find it so easy to spend or dispense of it to their advantage.

This all sounds frighteningly like our governmental agencies, right? People who get their hands on tax funds seldom treat them as if they were coming out of their accounts, as they should if they are effective and honorable. Instead, they see large numbers of dollars to be be expended with ease and for convenience and spend them as if they are going out of style — which the American dollar has been doing too much of lately.

It seems safe to assume that these television commercials crowing about how to wipe out debt through a given agency are legal. But ethical? They are all dealing with amounts that solid citizens have provided — someone else’s money. Guess who winds up making it possible to wipe out such debts.