OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT

Student debtor stories submitted by the 99%

From the blog “Naked Capitalism”:  
Ten years ago, one in fourteen American consumers were pursued by debt collectors.  Today it’s one in seven.
The experience of debt collection can be chilling, as this 2007 ABC News report suggests.
Consumers around the country have taped threatening phone  calls from collectors who have called in the middle of the night, used  abusive language and have threatened to have people fired from work or  thrown in jail.  All of these tactics are illegal under federal law.
One of the characteristics of the new social contract ushered in by  both George W. Bush and Barack Obama is the increasing power of  creditors to govern outright, from tax farming by banks to the use of  credit checks to access employment opportunities.
There are now thousands of people legally jailed because they aren’t paying their bills, ie. debtor’s  prisons have returned.  Occasionally elites let it slip that this is not  an accident, but is their goal – former Comptroller General David  Walker has wistfully pined for debtor’s prisons overtly (on CNBC, no less).

From the blog “Naked Capitalism”:

Ten years ago, one in fourteen American consumers were pursued by debt collectors. Today it’s one in seven.

The experience of debt collection can be chilling, as this 2007 ABC News report suggests.

Consumers around the country have taped threatening phone calls from collectors who have called in the middle of the night, used abusive language and have threatened to have people fired from work or thrown in jail. All of these tactics are illegal under federal law.

One of the characteristics of the new social contract ushered in by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama is the increasing power of creditors to govern outright, from tax farming by banks to the use of credit checks to access employment opportunities.

There are now thousands of people legally jailed because they aren’t paying their bills, ie. debtor’s prisons have returned. Occasionally elites let it slip that this is not an accident, but is their goal – former Comptroller General David Walker has wistfully pined for debtor’s prisons overtly (on CNBC, no less).