Life in these Untidy States: I think this guy is my new hero.

[athelind]

Better Off Deadbeat

Craig Cunningham is suing abusive credit companies and bill collectors.

It's one of those framing issues: "oh, no, he's trying to weasel out of debts he racked up, fair and square" -- but, you know, we've all been manipulated into this debt-based economy anyway. We're expected to play nice and be cooperative and toe the line, while they don't even see fit to follow the rules that already favor them.

The only way that's gonna change is by telling the bastards to take a flying leap. And sometimes, that takes another bastard to lead the way.

More power to ya, Mr. C -- and back to you, Howard.

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For the record, I'm not seeing this as some kind of easy way to deal with my own economic woes;
for one thing, I don't have a whole lotta debt right now, myself. This just pleases me.

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Comments

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

What I found most interesting is the credit collectors who were talking about how these laws had all these "hypertechnical" details and the creditors should just accept apologizes. I found that interesting because when I do something "wrong" to, say, my bank they don't just accept an apology. They charge my ass.

But, hey, when these cats break the law, and not in some sort of isolated case, like Cunningham's own stories show, it's this systematic abuse, this stuff that just happens over and over, again, but these cats can break the law and it's just them "taking advantage of the law". *rolls eyes so far back into my skull I can see my brain* How can they even make that argument without the court bursting out into laughter? Banks and credit collection agencies are attacking others for using niggly details of law?! *boggles*

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

Nothin' to lose but our chains, man. Nothin' but our chains.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

Oh, you know I know that. Banks are the enemy. There is nothing they do that couldn't be done better another way - except, of course, keep a bunch of people indebted while they grow richer than any human beings have ever been.

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

I was also reflecting about how the moral codes about repayment of debts has . . . not often sided with the creditor until *very* recently. So, in ancient Jewish law, you couldn't hold a debt over someone for more than seven years. And in Christian morality, charging interest was a sin until people decided to change the definition of usury. In Islam, you can't use debt to ruin a person's life - it's sinful to demand payment from someone who would then deprive his family of the things they need to live.

Repayment of debts is not among the key moral stances of any morality I have come into contact with prior to the modern world. You don't find a key position of Taoism the repayment of debt. You don't find it in Confucianism, either. It's not a big deal to the Stoics, or Epicureans. You don't find Buddhists having much to do about debts. Not even *Legalism* bothers to talk about the importance of debts.

Early legal systems were often rife with just crazy "consumer protections". Man, if you're in Babylon and you lie about debt collection - they're gonna kill you and give all your stuff to the guy you tried to cheat. Often the government was on the side of the creditor (as they were often debtors, no doubt, hehe).

But my point is that it's totally true that the elevation of importance of contract law and "paying our debts" as a central feature of morality is very modern. To get to the paying of debts as being a value in pretty much every moral system invented, you have to go pretty far into inference territory.

Anyway, that's my thought before I go to bed. ;)

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

Obviously I posted it, hehe. And the verse you're looking for is Nehemiah 10:31, this from the NIV, "When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day. Every seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts."

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

Ha, I knew there was a better bit. It's in Deut 15:1-11. It's really clear and it's Deuteronomic law, which is the apex religious law of the Old Testament.