\n ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/debtpris.jpg\")
Inside Debtors’ Prison, London<\/p>\n
There is an issue dancing around the the political debate,
\n being bandied in intellectual argument and stark statistics, which
\n really deserves to be front and center. It runs through the American
\n political and economic firmament like the holes in Swiss cheese. It
\n affects virtually every family in the country on a visceral, survival
\n level. We
\n are talking about Debt.<\/p>\n
The form in which Debt has been permitted to penetrate
\n the public consciousness is as part of the discussion of the US national
\n debt, the deficit and federal spending. As Kerry has lately been lamenting,
\n without much appear ant effect we may add, President Bush has presided
\n over the most dramatic financial reversal in American history, in terms
\n of the Federal Government’s fiscal balance. But much more significant
\n is the form in which the phenomena preys, day and night, on the national
\n subconscious – Consumer Debt.<\/p>\n
It is the contention of the Dowbrigade that these two
\n phenomena are not only related, but part and parcel of a moral and
\n financial cancer that is eating away at the core values and economic
\n stability of the United States – a debtors mentality that threatens
\n to rot out
\n the core values and real value our forbears have spent 250 years building
\n up.<\/p>\n
This Debt Mentality functions like a sort of financial 25 Grand might represent a nice vacation for Kerry, So knowing that our government leaders are big fans of Besides, if we are already 25 G’s in the hole for promises According to recent According to CNN "The American consumer has become It’s a dangerous situation — potentially a bubble that dwarfs even Debt is an inherent feature and a useful tool in the However, another tenet of modern Capitalism is that But people with no appreciable savings, people just starting But during the second half of the 20th century we have Up to a point, debt is a stabilizing influence. It ties Permanent debt is a debilitating, humiliating condition The end-stages of the debt spiral are not pretty. Bankruptcy To make matters worse, these sorry individuals suffer When debtors represented a tiny percentage of citizens Listen to Bob Herbert, writing on the New "For the families in these lower-income brackets, You do the math. How are these millions of poor and low-income The answer is debt, the coin of the realm as we dance <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Inside Debtors’ Prison, London There is an issue dancing around the the political debate, being bandied in intellectual argument and stark statistics, which really deserves to be front and center. It runs through the American political and economic firmament like … Continue reading
\n fractal. On the macro side of the scale, the current US National
\n Debt weighs in at $7,423,452,113,793.29, according to the US
\n National Debt Clock<\/a>. This works out to $25,207.79 for each of the
\n almost 300 million citizens of our great country. Every baby born in
\n every maternity ward in America bursts into the world under the onus
\n of a $25,000 debt to our country’s creditors, a bunch of shifty and
\n avaricious foreigners for the most part.<\/p>\n
\n Bush and the other pols
\n who set
\n the national
\n agenda, but for millions of Americans it is more money than
\n they will ever see in one place or have in their bank accounts.On
\n a personal level, the Dowbrigade’s modest family of four is responsible
\n for over $100,000
\n of this debt, contracted on our part by a series of elected leaders
\n who somehow neglected to send us periodic bills to let us know that
\n our account was climbing. Although we have moved so frequently over
\n the years that maybe the bills just never caught up with us.<\/p>\n
\n spending more than they have coming in, and hearing debt figures in
\n the trillions
\n being bandied about without the batting of an eyelash, is it any wonder
\n that Mr. and Mrs. America avail themselves of a few of the many, almost
\n daily offers of easy credit finding their way into mailboxes, email
\n boxes, computer screens, raid airwaves, TV commercials and periodical
\n advertising? It would almost be unpatriotic NOT to buy a few things
\n on credit, at least if you listen to that nice Mr. Greenspan.<\/p>\n
\n the Government made on our behalf, what’s another few thousand to get
\n by while we work off the debt? The result of this kind of thinking
\n is a mountain of personal debt which has grown like a silent cancer
\n on the body politic, and now threatens to overwhelm both the national
\n psyche and the circulation of capital on which the nation’s economic
\n system depends.<\/p>\n
\n figures from the Federal Reserve Board, consumer debt rose to $1.98
\n trillion in October 2003, up from $1.5 trillion in 2001. This
\n figure,
\n represents credit card and car loan debt alone – itt excludes mortgages.
\n It represents approximately $18,700 for each US household. <\/p>\n
\n Money<\/a>,<\/p>\n\n
\n deeply addicted to spending, running up ever higher levels of debt
\n in order to live in a fashion that is beyond his means. And the world
\n has become equally addicted to the consumer continuing to burn through
\n cash. <\/p>\n
\n the U.S. asset bubble that burst in 2000 — and it will be a challenge
\n for policy-makers
\n to keep it from ending badly."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n economic system we call Modern Capitalism. In theory, as the economy
\n generates excess capital, it collects in the hands of certain individuals,
\n who reinvest it to continue the cycle of capital creation. Entrepreneurs
\n use debt to create economic opportunity and employment.<\/p>\n
\n economies expand and contract in cycles. This seems to be an economic
\n law that predates even capitalism. When the economy contracts, people
\n who have accumulated excess capital can protect it, by investing in
\n bonds – basically loaning their money to the most credit-worthy players
\n on the scene – major US corporations and the US Government, the greatest
\n corporation of all.<\/p>\n
\n out, people in lower-paying jobs, go into debt when the economy contracts.
\n Which is all fine and good. We don’t want them starving to death
\n while waiting for the inevitable expansion to begin. According to classical
\n economic theory when the expansion arrives, their incomes will go up,
\n and they will be able to pay off their debts and continue down the
\n road to economic well-being and eventual membership in the Republican
\n Party.<\/p>\n
\n developed a situation wherein massive, widespread consumer debt is
\n not a periodic phenomena
\n but a permanent condition. It is a condition from which over a hundred
\n million Americans are suffering today. Debt is a weight on their shoulders,
\n an anchor on their dreams and chains around their souls.<\/p>\n
\n people to one place, one house, one job. It gives them a reason to
\n get out of bed and go to work in the morning. But when debt gets to
\n the point that it is a constant ogre lurking in the back of the mind,
\n when it causes the knotted stomach and the metallic taste in the mouth
\n of not knowing how to pay the bills at the end of every month, when
\n it becomes compulsive and pathological and interferes with the ability
\n of men
\n and women to
\n do
\n their jobs, or to even have jobs to do, then the very economic existence
\n of the nation is in danger. <\/p>\n
\n with severe negative health, psychological ,moral effects. People in
\n debt feel guilty, depressed, worthless, ashamed and afraid. Most are
\n in denial, and think of their debt as little as possible. The subconscious
\n burden of accumulated debt can cause physical illness and aberrant
\n behavior.<\/p>\n
\n and an extended sentence to wage slavery is the best possible outcome.
\n Ending up indigent on the street is a real possibility and an increasingly
\n common result. Some end up outside the law, entering into fraud,
\n flight or identity theft. Others become institutionalized, addicted
\n to alcohol or drugs, or die as a result of a combination of these
\n factors.<\/p>\n
\n the burden
\n of social disapprobation and marginalization. in the Puritan ethos
\n a debtor is weak, flawed individual.
\n It is his or her lack of self-discipline that is at fault. <\/p>\n
\n and debtor’s prisons were still in vogue, this was a workable philosophy.
\n But today, the debtor class includes A MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION!
\n The reality is that these
\n are not bad, evil, lazy or immoral people. These are honest and
\n hard-working Americans who by the luck of birth, or ability, or temperament
\n have ended up in low-paying jobs or industries in transition, and have
\n fallen into one of the millions of clever debt traps vying for space
\n and attention in the credit scam feeding frenzy.<\/p>\n
\n York Times Op-Ed <\/a>page last week: <\/p>\n\n
\n life is often a harrowing day-to-day struggle to pay for the bare
\n necessities. According to federal
\n government statistics, the median annual rent for a two-bedroom
\n apartment in major metropolitan markets is more than $8,000. The annual
\n cost
\n of food for a low-income family of four is nearly $4,000. Utility
\n bills are nearly $2,000. Transportation costs are about $1,500. And
\n then
\n there are costs for child care, health care and clothing.<\/p>\n
\n families making it?"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n into the fantasy land of the American Millennium. We are a society,
\n a culture and an economy built on debt. And debt, at its core, is built
\n on trust. We trust you are going to pay us back. When we wake up to
\n the fact that this became impossible long ago, then the real payback
\n will start.<\/p>\n