Hurricane Katrina Special Report
My heart goes out to the hundreds of thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina. There are no words to describe a natural disaster of this magnitude.
However, we must all carry on, and in my case I must try to describe the incredible magnitude of the impact Katrina will have on the American Debtors Prison. Among other things, we can expect to see a huge increase in the prison's inmate population. Not from an influx of hardened criminals and fraudsters, for the American Debtors Prison does not incarcerate criminals. Instead, the prison population will increase with untold thousands of poor people who have lost everything they have in the world--except for one thing: their debt.....
Let me repeat that. They have lost their homes, their property, their jobs, their cities and communities, and in many cases have lost friends and family. If they have savings at all that money may not be immediately accessible without their account credentials. But the one thing each and every refugee carried with them out of that devastated area was their debt.
The American Debtors Prison Makes no distinction between those who borry money with no intent to repay (which is criminal fraud), and those who become unable to repay their debts for any reason. Both are treated as criminals in the American Debtors Prison system, and both are punished in exactly the same way.
The refugees from Katrina have approximately one month before the computerized databases of American financial corporations begin flagging their accounts as "delinquent", and the collection agent terrorists begin creating an entirely different form of hell for these refugees. Collections protocol demands that "no excuse is good enough", including a natural disaster that destroyed one of the United States' largest cities.
Collection agents will be required to assume that any debtor who says they lost everything in Hurricane Katrina is lying. They will be required to press those victims--and to press them hard--for payment anyway. If the victims don't, or can't pay, collection agents will begin using time-tested terror tactics in an attempt to get the victims to send in any money they can--meager savings, food money, medicine money, and any financial assistance they might have received after the disaster. And when they still can't pay, they'll begin their descent into the American Debtors Prison. Their credit reports will reflect serious delinquency, and after six months creditors will "write off" their accounts as "uncollectable" to qualify for tax breaks, and they will send those accounts to third-party collection agencies to be collected anyway.
Eventually their credit reports will reflect such a "deadbeat" status that refugees will no longer be able to get a job or rent an apartment, because the U.S. government legally allows non-creditors such as employers and landlords to review credit reports when deciding whether to hire or rent to an individual. Once their credit reports reach this stage, those peoples' productive lives are over, because their is no way to repair it. They owed money, and didn't pay, after all.... That is the only perspective the American Debtors Prison sees.
It is important to note that the news media has never acknowledged the existence of the American Debtors Prison, and the media's coverage of Hurricane Katrina has been no different. I have not heard a single media outlet mention the ultimate fate of so many refugees who fled New Orleans with nothing more than their debt.
Refugees can rebuild their lives if given the chance. The American Debtors Prison is the only thing that really stands in their way, because it creates an enormous obligation that is impossible to fulfill at the very time they need absolute freedom the most.
If you really want to help Katrina victims, find a way to locate individuals and families who were affected, and donate your money directly to them. Better yet, offer to help make their debt payments for a while. Yes, you'll no longer qualify for tax breaks, but mMoney donated to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other charitable organization is eaten away in large part by administration costs, and only a relatively small amount of your contribution will actually reach the people you are trying to help. Do some research, find some refugees, and donate directly to them instead. That is how you can really help them. The trivial tax breaks you'll lose don't even compare to the enormous loss these refugees have suffered.
All the best,
Paul
However, we must all carry on, and in my case I must try to describe the incredible magnitude of the impact Katrina will have on the American Debtors Prison. Among other things, we can expect to see a huge increase in the prison's inmate population. Not from an influx of hardened criminals and fraudsters, for the American Debtors Prison does not incarcerate criminals. Instead, the prison population will increase with untold thousands of poor people who have lost everything they have in the world--except for one thing: their debt.....
Let me repeat that. They have lost their homes, their property, their jobs, their cities and communities, and in many cases have lost friends and family. If they have savings at all that money may not be immediately accessible without their account credentials. But the one thing each and every refugee carried with them out of that devastated area was their debt.
The American Debtors Prison Makes no distinction between those who borry money with no intent to repay (which is criminal fraud), and those who become unable to repay their debts for any reason. Both are treated as criminals in the American Debtors Prison system, and both are punished in exactly the same way.
The refugees from Katrina have approximately one month before the computerized databases of American financial corporations begin flagging their accounts as "delinquent", and the collection agent terrorists begin creating an entirely different form of hell for these refugees. Collections protocol demands that "no excuse is good enough", including a natural disaster that destroyed one of the United States' largest cities.
Collection agents will be required to assume that any debtor who says they lost everything in Hurricane Katrina is lying. They will be required to press those victims--and to press them hard--for payment anyway. If the victims don't, or can't pay, collection agents will begin using time-tested terror tactics in an attempt to get the victims to send in any money they can--meager savings, food money, medicine money, and any financial assistance they might have received after the disaster. And when they still can't pay, they'll begin their descent into the American Debtors Prison. Their credit reports will reflect serious delinquency, and after six months creditors will "write off" their accounts as "uncollectable" to qualify for tax breaks, and they will send those accounts to third-party collection agencies to be collected anyway.
Eventually their credit reports will reflect such a "deadbeat" status that refugees will no longer be able to get a job or rent an apartment, because the U.S. government legally allows non-creditors such as employers and landlords to review credit reports when deciding whether to hire or rent to an individual. Once their credit reports reach this stage, those peoples' productive lives are over, because their is no way to repair it. They owed money, and didn't pay, after all.... That is the only perspective the American Debtors Prison sees.
It is important to note that the news media has never acknowledged the existence of the American Debtors Prison, and the media's coverage of Hurricane Katrina has been no different. I have not heard a single media outlet mention the ultimate fate of so many refugees who fled New Orleans with nothing more than their debt.
Refugees can rebuild their lives if given the chance. The American Debtors Prison is the only thing that really stands in their way, because it creates an enormous obligation that is impossible to fulfill at the very time they need absolute freedom the most.
If you really want to help Katrina victims, find a way to locate individuals and families who were affected, and donate your money directly to them. Better yet, offer to help make their debt payments for a while. Yes, you'll no longer qualify for tax breaks, but mMoney donated to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other charitable organization is eaten away in large part by administration costs, and only a relatively small amount of your contribution will actually reach the people you are trying to help. Do some research, find some refugees, and donate directly to them instead. That is how you can really help them. The trivial tax breaks you'll lose don't even compare to the enormous loss these refugees have suffered.
All the best,
Paul
posted by Paul at 12:35 PM
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