Strike Debt to Help the 99% Through Debt Forgiveness
I think this is just about the coolest thing ever, and I think most of you will agree. As personal finance bloggers, we often focus on debt issues: how to avoid debt, how to get out of debt, why you shouldn’t take on debt, living a debt free life, etc.
An offshoot group of the Occupy Wall Street movement called Strike Debt has recently announced plans to help the 99% of Americans represented by the OWS movement. The project is called The Rolling Jubilee, and has been created to purchase distressed consumer debt such as medical bills and student loans, and then simply forgive it, leaving the debtors free and clear of their obligation. This is a powerful new way of using crowdfunding to help people in need.
“The basic premise is simple: people shouldn’t have to go into debt for an education, because they need medical care, or because they have to put food on the table during hard times,” Rolling Jubilee’s website says.
The organization can do this through donations because distressed debt is a fairly cheap investment. As an example, the Strike Debt project conducted a trial run in which they were able to purchase $14,000 of medical debt for just $466. Typically these deals would be made by debt brokers who then aggressively go after the debtor to collect the full amount of the debt. Strike Debt is using this system in a way that truly benefits people, rather than keeping them beholden to their debt.
According to OWS organizer David Rees:
If you’re a debt broker, once you own someone’s debt you can do whatever you want with it — traditionally, you hound debtors to their grave trying to collect. We’re playing a different game. A MORE AWESOME GAME.)
The Rolling Jubilee website explains:
We buy debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, we abolish it. We cannot buy specific individuals’ debt – instead, we help liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal.
This is an amazingly simple way to help the average American, and I can only wonder why our government so blithely spent hundreds of billions of dollars when they could have wiped out $1 trillion of needless consumer debt for the mere pittance of $100 billion. This would have freed countless Americans from their shackles of debt, leaving them free to once more invest in the economy rather than sending their hard earned dollars to the banks and financial institutions who put them in this situation. It would have also saved hundreds of billions in tax payer money that was so freely handed over to these same institutions that are enslaving the American public.
This simple and powerful alternative will help thousands in need by freeing them from their debt burdens so they can lead a happy and productive life.
The Rolling Jubilee campaign officially begins tonight with a telethon and variety show called The People’s Bailout, being held in New York City at Le Poisson Rouge. While you may be too late to attend the show (unless you live in or near New York), it isn’t too late to lend a helping hand to your fellow Americans. You can donate to the Strike Debt movement by simply visiting the StrikeDebt.org website. A $25 donation can wipe out $750 in debt.
You can also watch the event via Livestream here. The event begins at 6:30pm EST.
You can also help by spreading the word:
- Forward this message to your friends and family.
- Like the Strike Debt Facebook page
- Follow @StrikeDebt on twitter.
- Post and tweet using the hashtags #PeoplesBailout and #RollingJubilee, and refer to www.rollingjubilee.org, www.strikedebt.org, and the @StrikeDebt twitter handle. Some sample posts can be found here: https://bit.ly/RJSampleTweets.
- Donate your Twitter or Facebook account for one daily re-post or re-tweet: https://donateyouraccount.com/StrikeDebt. This is a safe and easy way to spread the message.
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That is an amazing idea! Medical debt is such a huge problem for so many people. As if it isn’t bad enough struggling with your health, then you end up in debt for it.
Will share!
Thanks for sharing Amy, very kind of you!
Wow, between my husband and I we have amassed 3 student loans and are paying them off monthly for about $600 a month. I would truly love for someone to buy the loans off of us so we can get out from under that debt, because it has kept us from being able to buy a house, because we just can’t afford the monthly payments of a mortgage right now with only one income coming in and these student loans to pay. Thank you for sharing and hope that something like this could happen to us.
You are in a situation that many people find themselves in today and it is so frustrating, especially considering that it shouldn’t be necessary. Student loan debt is currently the most defaulted on type of debt, mainly because many people have gotten into situations where student debt repayment is their largest expense. University tuition just isn’t justifiable considering the stagnation of income in the U.S.
This sounds like a great idea! That’s one way to get more people to go to University. I never went (I did a few courses part time while I was working but never attended classes) because I didn’t want to spend years paying back a student loan. Great article!
Sounds like you’re one of the lucky ones Melanie!
I saw your post on the Jubilee and was wondering what it was about. What a great idea. I am currently paying off student loans and it is cost me more than a car payment every single month. I really wish I didn’t have to hold that burden over my head. Yet I want to go back to school. I just don’t think it is feasible to add to the debt.
I went back to school in 2000 and I am still repaying the loans 12 years later. While I did use the degree for 10 years, I am no longer working in that field, but I will continue paying on the loans for another 5 years.
It’s great that they can do this through donations. The government’s already spent so much money, that any more from them and I’d be close to my worry breaking point. Great post, Steve!
Based on the numbers Strike Debt is giving, it would have been far more useful for the government to buy all of this toxic consumer debt rather than the toxic bank assets. At least the people would spend their incomes, rather than hoarding it as the banks and financial institutions have been doing.