Forum Post: Debt Strike
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 27, 2011, 10:37 a.m. EST by DebtStrike1
(5)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
WHEREAS we can no longer endure "endless growth" on a finite planet, and
WHEREAS we can no longer tolerate debt-slavery to the Destroyers, and
WHEREAS Our Time Has Come,
We, The People of the Earth, hereby resolve to overthrow the Destroyers by any non-violent means necessary, among them, A Debt Strike.
Conduct your business with local merchants.
Stop paying "debts owed" to faceless corporations. (They just made up the money they lent you anyway, at the same time making up interest for which the money to repay will never exist.)
This whole debt economy is a figment of the lethal "Growth Forever" meme. Kill it. Stop it. Cut off its air.
Stop Paying into it.
I do agree that we need to focus on sustainability, not growth. But credit is a just a tool.
The vast majority of tools are value neutral-- whether they are good or bad depends solely on their application.
Credit, fairly implemented and used wisely, benefits both the lender and the borrower. Only when the rules are rigged in the lenders favor or used irresponsibly, does it become "bad".
"when the rules are rigged in the lenders favor or used irresponsibly, does it become "bad"."
Exactly my point.
Yeah, but your method is flawed in that it ends up hurting yourselves and not the credit industry. Like it or not, until we get them regulated or otherwise force them to RELIEVE the debt, it remains even if people don't pay it. Until the idea of forcing them to relieve debt becomes popular opinion, any "call" to boycott debt will get a fraction of the number you would need to get them to pay attention. I mean there are tens of thousands if not more of people already forfeiting on their payments simply because they don't have the money... any number of folks you could get with such a call would just blend right in. And they would just add late fees onto what you owe, shit all over your credit history, which you need to be able to find a place to live, and increasingly a job. And you'd still owe, so they could hound you for years.
And you'd want to target your call better anyway... What is a faceless corporation...some people know who the multinationals are, but a lot of people think some businesses are bigger than they are.
For instance, Citi Bank may be evil, but my credit is from a small credit union, and so if I don't pay back that's uncool, that money belongs to the other people who use that credit union.
I think you're on the right track, though, because if you make one tweak to your call, it'll be an easier sell to people who generally want be responsible. And as most do, before you could get them to stop paying off their credit there would need to be societal consensus that it doesn't equate to theft.
BUT I think a campaign to get people to stop USING credit, now that could take off. If we could get a significant chunk of people to not buy anything using a major credit card for a week, or even a day, that would get their attention pretty damn fast. Then we could think about negotiating debt relief, but not before.
Well, I'm in this to make those with the most political and financial power to live up to their responsibilities. How does shirking mine do that?
I thought this was about folks wanting to reward responsible citizens with the means to be able to pay the bills, by setting up a fair and level playing field. This should not be about doing away with those bills, unless as part of fixing this society agrees to relieve them as part of the solution.
Besides, what money I owe are to businesses that may be big but are not multinational or faceless, and finally were not responsible for this any way. Even if I owed the banks anything, like I said, you don't get something by doing the opposite yourself, and unless laws are changed, all this will get folks are MORE debt as fees accrue, and a ding to their credit that makes their lives harder than they are already.
Pay your bills folks, this about creating/restoring our system so you have the opportunity to work, to be paid a living wage, to not of necessity be shacked to unreasonable debt in order to function. I want the corporations to stop dicking us, but I have no interest in trying to screw them in kind.
This explains it all - http://www.sheldonemrylibrary.com/Coming%20Soon.pdf
hahahahaha
You realize you wrote that on a computer made by a "faceless corporation" through an internet network provided by a "faceless corporation".
PS Comments like that are very hurtful to all the good hard working PR people out there who everyday try to put a human face on the organisations they represent.
PPS PR people tend to be in the lower 99%
Well of course he did, and so am I, whats your point man, they provide the tools of their own destruction so use them.
mtgoat = troll
Yeah. and they're paid for. Read it again.
Nope, not paid. And not truly a troll either. While I agree with the foundations of movement, I am embarrassed by those extreme who I feel are destroying any hope of real progress. The US political process is very slow moving and while great change is needed, if we try to push it all through at once we will fail. An easy example of that is Obama's health care plan. I'm a huge supporter of it, in fact I don't think it goes far enough, but his method of implementation may end up destroying it. Save rulings by the Supreme Court, the only way to make lasting change in this country is one piece at a time.
Lets not get greedy or impatient here, we could destroy all the hard work and sacrifice of thousands of people.
My computer and connectivity are paid for. I am proposing turning our backs on the debt-based money system and building a new economy, cognizant of the fact the we all live on a finite planet.
"The US political process is very slow moving..." The US political system is completely owned by the money system. Starve the (correct) Beast.