I should probably
clarify something from yesterday; I did not have anything against the Batkid
story. It hit me in a way that was more intellectual than emotional, which I
would not necessarily have expected for that kind of story. I feel like some of
the thoughts that came from that were productive, though, so I think it worked
out.
Where we are going
with that this week focuses on that bit about people still being pretty okay
with giving to sick kids, but maybe not to others. Today I have seen this:
There is another
article with a subtext of judging the poor, which I think I will sit on for a
while, and just go right to talking about Strike Debt.
I first became
aware of Strike Debt and the Rolling Jubilee last year. Rolling Jubilee started
on November 15th, actually, so we have just hit the anniversary.
The sites are worth
visiting, but basically they pay off bad debts.
I had not really
known about this, but when companies think that they cannot collect on a debt,
they will sell off the accounts, for pennies on the dollar. The new owners can
then work on collecting the debt. If they are successful, they have made a
profit, minus the costs of collections.
There is also
association with the Anonymous movement, and a desire to change the system
overall. Purchasing this debt, and then canceling it, is working within the
system, but there is talk of working against the system too.
It would be easy to
look down on this. After all, people should have to pay for what they get, and
honor the responsibilities they take one. I actually do know a family that
lived above their means via consumer debt and then planned to declare bankruptcy
to get out of it. I don't know whether they were able to do so successfully,
because a judge still has to approve that, and it's not as easy as it looks,
but yes, I know there are people like that. That is not all I know.
I also know that
medical bills are the biggest cause of US bankruptcies. You can decide not to
get that new television pretty easily, but deciding not to get chemo, or
insulin, or that broken leg set is a much more difficult choice:
I know that during
my personal economic downturn, with a lot of moving things around, and some
help from family and church, and every temp job I could get, I only had one
month where I could not pay a credit card bill. Since the overall period ran
from September 2008 through August 2010, that was pretty good, really, but I
was still suddenly getting eleven calls a day.
And, these are not
bankruptcies anyway. These are accounts that are late, and the collection calls
are coming. For me that was an amazingly demoralizing time, and what makes it
amazing is that all those negative responses and missing responses to all of
those job applications had delivered a pretty heavy blow to the morale anyway,
but it had not, in fact, reached rock bottom yet, because the collection calls
still sent it further down.
You can have a
reasonable debate about what is wrong with the system and how to fix it. In
this current arrangement, we have the original lenders losing most of their
investment, the debtors still being pursued, and third parties profiting off of
all of that misery.
What I am struck by
is the beauty of the rolling jubilee. You get nothing in return for donating -
it's not even a tax write-off - but someone, somewhere is freed. A weight has
been lifted. That is grace. It is not a coincidence that there is a biblical
reference in the name, or that the Bible is against usury.
With $633,180 they
have abolished $14,734,569.87 of debt. Instead of harassing calls, there are
letters letting them know that they are free, because strangers cared and had
kind hearts.
That is beautiful.
That is so good.
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