Rolling Jubilee of Debt Comes to Louisville

I have mixed feelings about the Rolling Jubilee:  while I absolutely support relieving non-rich people of ridiculous debt, I hate that the rapacious corporations who imposed the debt get paid off, even in pennies on the dollar.


Jere Downs at the Courier:

A New York-based nonprofit says it has bought up more than $1 million in medical debts owed by more than 1,000 people in the Louisville area, as part of a protest of the credit industry.

The Rolling Jubilee Fund, founded by Occupy Wall Street protesters, said it has forgiven the debts, which ranged from $25.50 to $8,790 — so they no longer have to be paid.


“We believe that no one should have to go into debt for the basic things in our lives, like healthcare, housing and education,” said Thomas Gokey, the organization's vice president.


The goal of the project, which began last fall, is to “to buy and abolish personal debt,” said Gokey, who argues there is a double standard with debt — Wall Street banks that owe billions of dollars are bailed out, while “the same options are not available for the 99 percent.”


The Rolling Jubilee said it used donations from people sympathetic to their cause to purchase the debt, which was owed to local doctors and then sold on the credit market after the doctors were unable to collect. The group said it bought the debt from a debt broker and a collection agency in the Louisville area.

It's also counter-productive for the debt of the parasitic rich to get paid off by the tax dollars of the working class while the debt of the working class gets paid off by donations from their fellow workers. Workers get screwed three ways, while the motherfucking rich laugh all the way to the Caymans.

Our whole modern concept of debt is inhumane and self-destructive, as David Graeber explains in his book Debt: the First 5,000 Years.