tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post111360371085610720..comments2023-09-25T07:01:43.067-04:00Comments on Critical Montages: Debtors of the World, Unite!Yoshiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11826849368615187619noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-1113832301462620842005-04-18T09:51:00.000-04:002005-04-18T09:51:00.000-04:00I think "Debtors of the World, Unite!" is erudite....I think "Debtors of the World, Unite!" is erudite. Many more people in the global north are strapped with an amazing amount of debt. We live in a debtor society. Credit schemes (and inflated speculative stock prices) far outweigh those immediately predating the 1929 stock market crash. The situation for many that I know- work ing class and first generation "middle class" (based on education level and status, not necessarily in relationship to means of production) is getting worse by the day. With increased centralization of banks and quick amalgamation of the credit/ insurance industry and the emergence of tens of thousands of pay day loans and similar schemes, this seems much like the company stores and sharecropper debt peonage my grandmother told me kept her family in perpetual debt. <BR/><BR/>Unemployment is high. Wages are stagnant. High paying industry jobs are scarce. Many working young people opt for college- not only because of the social expectation to do so- but for what they hope to be increased job opportunities if not always upward mobility. But Higher education serves an important latent <BR/>function. It serves to artificailly lower official unemployment rates (the US masks our VERY HIGH unemployment (as well as underermployment, under-wageent and over-workment in a variety of ways, and many institutions' latent- if not always expressed- funtion is to lower nominal unemployment rate. In <BR/>the inner city this is jails and prisons, and community colleges. In the suburbs it is sometimes land grant universities. <BR/><BR/>But student debt has long not been covered under bankruptcy. The state disallows student loans from bankruptcy and under Clinton increases the age for independent student status to 25!!! It seems all too calculated attempt to reinforce the seemingly docile contemporary nature of the class. <BR/><BR/>My credit card and student debts are more than twice my annual salary. I know I am not alone. <BR/><BR/>Thank you, Yoshie for this post. <BR/><BR/>Robert C.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-1113710058208694072005-04-16T23:54:00.000-04:002005-04-16T23:54:00.000-04:00It is a mind set of the wealthy that the rich must...It is a mind set of the wealthy that the rich must stay rich, so the rich create a society that ensures there survival. So poor are like cattle creatures of habit poor do not raise there young right nor do the young see a future in which to strive, because the poor only hear promises which would be the offspring of the poor,.So much for loving mankind from the rich toward the poor Jesus does not exist to them only a Benz.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-1113635712552972182005-04-16T03:15:00.000-04:002005-04-16T03:15:00.000-04:00I've carried CC debt twice in my life.One time, it...I've carried CC debt twice in my life.<BR/><BR/>One time, it was to loaf around, and I had a couple thousand in debt. This was pretty voluntary. I wanted to stay out of a down market, and lived off savings for a long time. Then I went into debt, and went back to work.<BR/><BR/>The first time, though, it was because the market was down, and I made too little money. I didn't qualify for food stamps, or so I thought, so I didn't apply. So I paid for food with the CC. I was around $1000 in debt. It wasn't fun. Paying it off required a lot of belt-tightening, and the damned thing was already pretty tight. I also had a medical emergency and that didn't help any, even with insurance, it cost some money.<BR/><BR/>The real issue, in my mind, is, should I have been given a loan by the state, at a low rate, or benefits for "free", or was it better to have a bank somewhere get 20% interest on my misfortune?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-1113623776508532132005-04-15T23:56:00.000-04:002005-04-15T23:56:00.000-04:00Isn't a bit odd to identify the long-term structur...Isn't a bit odd to identify the long-term structural debt of the developing world with the mainly credit card debt of the modern bankrupt? True, unpaid medical bills figure in some 60% of Chapter 7 bankruptcies, but then credit card and consumer debt account for nearly 90%. This surely underlines the need for a national health care system, but does it follow that the issue of debt relief in America is analogous to that in the Third World? And of course credit card companies are evil and buy and sell "democracy's" representatives like cattle. But we are unlikely to make much of a case when it comes to pleading the cause of people who fell victim to the seductions of America's consumer culture largely through their own insouciance and folly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786517.post-1113614123185468462005-04-15T21:15:00.000-04:002005-04-15T21:15:00.000-04:00As long as I can be traced I can't comment. So goe...As long as I can be traced I can't comment. So goes free speech in america.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com