https://doctorow.medium.com/dashcam-repo-33bc514024e
"If you want a motto for the current economic situation, a touchstone to check
in on whenever you hear about a new business model or a new depredation, I
suggest Michael Hudson’s bedrock claim: “Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be
paid.” 40 years of wage stagnation, combined with spiraling health, housing and
education costs have produced a mountain of unpayable debts.
Our society is organized around a small number of creditors extracting rents
from an ever-growing pool of debtors whose ability to pay is eroded by every
penalty and every emergency triggered by the lack of a cushion:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/08/jubilant/#construire-des-passerelles
Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid. We can pass laws that limit access to
bankruptcy, we can pass laws that allow creditors to take your pay, to take
your things, to take your home. We can pass laws that let creditors go after
your children for your debts, so that even death won’t wipe the slate clean, so
that debt becomes an intergenerational cycle:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/19/zombie-debt/#damnation
We can do all that, and still: debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid. It’s a
lesson every loan-shark knows. You can pile penalties and interest you’ve on
your borrower until you consume an ever-greater share of their income, but
eventually, you reach an end-game. Eventually, the borrower is out of money,
and has to choose between an essential (rent, food, medicine) and the vig. When
that happens, the loan-shark sends out an arm-breaker to rearrange the
borrower’s choice-architecture."
Life in the USA. Capitalism!
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
