Debtor versus Creditor
It is one of the oldest class divisions. The debtor and the creditor.
When I was younger, I was told that debt and poverty only happened to the lazy and Riff-raff. The ‘lower’ class.
There was such as stigma associated with being in debt, that when I found myself there, the shame was crippling.
This societal and cultural crippling is part of the strategy of neoliberal economics.
I had to discover, through my lived experience, that it is all BS.
Being highly educated doesn’t save you from debt.
Students these days carry a lifetime of debt just to get educated.
The debt industrial machine is a massive money earner. It is predatory in the most egregious way. The heavy at the door to threaten. The endless calls.
Yet behind it, is a scam. Banks are not suffering. They provision for a percentage of debt and sell it on at about one-quarter of the original to agencies whose job it is to harass and intimidate.
The cultural shame and stigma associated with debt is a powerful lever of increased wealth for the already wealthy.
There is a need to have people take shit jobs on terrible wages to keep the wealth machines running. Shit jobs are only taken when there is fear of scarcity and debt.
For most of history, there have been regular debt jubilees. All debts are wiped out. It was seen as a way to allow society to stay towards equilibrium, preventing the chasm of difference between the wealthy and the poor.
Better still, to pay people a living wage, or better, a Universal Basic income.
But first, educate people on the machinery behind debt, the game that is being played on them.
When seen and known, we can call it for what it is.
Photo Taken October 14th 2023
