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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChris Hedges: Breaking the Chains of Debt Peonage
from truthdig:
Breaking the Chains of Debt Peonage
Posted on Feb 3, 2013
By Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges gave this talk Saturday night in Brooklyn at the Peoples Recovery Summit.
The corporate state has made it clear there will be no more Occupy encampments. The corporate state is seeking through the persistent harassment of activists and the passage of draconian laws such as Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Actand we will be in court next Wednesday to fight the Obama administrations appeal of the Southern District Court of New Yorks ruling declaring Section 1021 unconstitutionalto shut down all legitimate dissent. The corporate state is counting, most importantly, on its system of debt peonage to keep citizensespecially the 30 million people who make up the working poorfrom joining our revolt.
Workers who are unable to meet their debts, who are victimized by constantly rising interest rates that can climb to as high as 30 percent on credit cards, are far more likely to remain submissive and compliant. Debt peonage is and always has been a form of political control. Native Americans, forced by the U.S. government onto tribal agencies, were required to buy their goods, usually on credit, at agency stores. Coal miners in southern West Virginia and Kentucky were paid in scrip by the coal companies and kept in perpetual debt servitude by the company store. African-Americans in the cotton fields in the South were forced to borrow during the agricultural season from their white landlords for their seed and farm equipment, creating a life of perpetual debt. It soon becomes impossible to escape the mounting interest rates that necessitate new borrowing.
Debt peonage is a familiar form of political control. And today it is used by banks and corporate financiers to enslave not only individuals but also cities, municipalities, states and the federal government. As the economist Michael Hudson points out, the steady rise in interest rates, coupled with declining public revenues, has become a way to extract the last bits of capital from citizens as well as government. Once individuals, or states or federal agencies, cannot pay their billsand for many Americans this often means medical billsassets are sold to corporations or seized. Public land, property and infrastructure, along with pension plans, are privatized. Individuals are pushed out of their homes and into financial and personal distress.
Debt peonage is a fundamental tool for control. This debt peonage must be broken if we are going to build a mass movement to paralyze systems of corporate power. And the most effective weapon we have to liberate ourselves as well as the 30 million Americans who make up the working poor is a sustained movement to raise the minimum wage nationally to at least $11 an hour. Most of these 30 million low-wage workers are women and people of color. They and their families struggle at a subsistence level and play one lender off another to survive. By raising their wages we raise not only the quality of their lives but we increase their capacity for personal and political power. We break one of the most important shackles used by the corporate state to prevent organized resistance. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/breaking_the_chains_of_debt_peonage_20130203/
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)CrispyQ
(36,484 posts)He said something bad about Obama, so that will discredit the entire article in some minds.
Excellent article.
Another good read from Hedges, on the NDAA: http://www.zcommunications.org/the-final-battle-section-1021-b-2-of-the-national-defense-authorization-act-ndaa-by-chris-hedges
Be careful Chris. Yours is a voice they'd like to silence. FYI, I've been reading Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine." I tried reading it when it first came out but couldn't. I couldn't get past the first chapters of the actual physical shock programs & how inhumane & heinous they were. I am in the heart of the segment on Russia. It's hard reading. Very depressing scenario played out over & over across the globe, apparently with no end in sight. So much concern over the 2nd amendment & very little over the 4th & 5th.
K&R
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)I learned that in the 1960s, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile were poised to catch up with Europe economically. Then the right-wingers took charge...
Orrex
(63,216 posts)It's your own fault for not keeping a cushion of several thousand dollars to offset unforeseeable financial disaster, and if you should find yourself needing a new transmission and a new furnace while struggling with thousands of dollars in medical bills, well, that's your fault for not planning ahead.
Billion-dollar corporations are praised for their business savvy when they walk away from huge and insupportable debt, but when a private citizen misses a credit card payment, that person is demonized as if she were the primary cause of the nation's financial ruin.
I'm not convinced that raising the minimum wage would do much to defeat the problem of debt peonage, but we should raise the minimum wage regardless.
Gee. It's like you're a Democrat or something, Orrex, putting people ahead of things.
What's next? All people are equal?
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)And ditto on the minimum wage.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)Yes, I understand that it is not easy scraping by these days on a middle class income of only $399,000 a year, but that's why our progressive President secured for you a permanent tax cut. Now it's time to step up to the plate and be fiscally responsible. $30,000 a month only goes so far -- so yes, it might mean letting your personal shopper and antique scout go, but in these trying times we must all make painful sacrifices.
Sincerely,
A Modern Liberal
Orrex
(63,216 posts)What was I thinking?
And I have that time share in Nassau that I can sell, not to mention the guest yacht.
I should really try to keep better track of my resources.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)that are'nt one pay check away from living on the streets and never have been.
*disclaimer* No offense to latte drinkers
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)while the Dems did nothing. They didn't even PROPOSE debt relief.
High interest rates and lack of jobs are destroying the futures of a generation of college graduates.
What are the Dems doing about it?
They could win a lot of young hearts and minds by offering, at the very least, low-interest refinancing, if not outright debt forgiveness, to graduates. Around the time I graduated from college in the early 1970s, there were Federal student loans at 2%. Why not now? When they turned the program over to the banks (with Federal guarantees), the interest rates immediately went up to 7%.
CrispyQ
(36,484 posts)Then Monsanto & then we can start working on a list.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)For all the people who stood against a Romney presidency, we sure do seem to have a lot of Romney wannabes. Mini Wall St tycoons. Willing to turn a blind eye to injustice in order to afford a fine wine. Willing to privately fund the climate change deniers while they openly wish for a more sustainable future.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)Hotler
(11,431 posts)I've been told over and over again here on DU that protest do not work.