I Read The News Today. Oh, boy....

Three young black men have been arrested in Colorado for the unprovoked, brutal beatings of three white men as they slept in their homes, in separate incidents that occurred during a tragic two-hour spree of random, senseless violence in suburban Denver. One of the victims, a prominent Littleton attorney, died from his injuries six hours later, his head swollen to three time its normal size.

According to witnesses, the black youths--one age 17, and two age 18--allegedly sought out prosperous white victims completely at random, based on the size of their homes, and battered the victims in the head and torso areas with tire irons and other blunt objects as they slept, using lethal force. Witnesses describe the young attackers as "smiling and laughing" as their startled, unarmed victims struggled in vain to fend off multiple attackers. "They were laughing the entire time. They were enjoying it, like it was fun or something," said the deceased victim's wife, who witnessed the attack but was not harmed.

Public outrage over the sheer inhumanity of the attacks has fueled demands that prosecutors pursue the death penalty, even before the three men had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault.

Meanwhile, it is beginning to emerge that similar random violence by black youth against white men has been increasing over the past decade all across the nation, yet the media has largely failed to report it. As one telecommunications manager in Chicago said, "This has been going on for far too long. Everyone knows it. But nobody wants to talk about it or do anything about it. It seems like each night I feel more and more afraid to go to sleep. Who knows what you could wake up to?"

Lawyers for the alleged assailants have already begun to establish a defense for their clients in the media, citing broken homes, drug use, and boredom as "just a few of the many social diseases that ultimately led these basically good kids to do some truly awful things."

At least one prosecutor disagrees: "I find it absolutely reprehensible that anyone would even suggest that simple boredom, or a divorce in the family, or a conscious decision among the perpetrators to use drugs, could somehow justify the inhuman brutality of bludgeoning a defenseless stranger to death while the victim peacefully sleeps in his residence, with no motive other than pure, unadulturated hate. There is no reasonable explanation for this crime, unless you are willing to use the word 'evil'."

Although publicly, prosecutors have been quiet about whether or not they intend to pursue the death penalty, legal analysts say that the death penalty is almost a certainty for all three men in this case.

You may wonder why I would post news of brutal attacks and murder here, in the American Debtors Prison blog. The reason is because there is a striking similarity between the way our legal system treats "deliquent" debtors, who have committed no crime, and the way it treats those who are accused of committing the most savage of felonies.

The three assailants in this news story are black, and there remains to this day a vast disproportion of black prisoners to white prisoners on death row across the United States. The racism inherent in our legal system's decisions on whether or not to pursue the death penalty for similar crimes is perfectly evident to anyone courageous enough to face that reality. In this particular case, people were calling for the death penalty even before the alleged assailants had been arrested or charged with any crime at all--yet after they had been identified by witnesses as being black.

The exact same thing happens in the American Debtors Prison. Financial service industry propaganda has focused exclusively on debtors who default for any reason as being "delinquents" or "deadbeats", while entirely avoiding the significant matter of just who initiated the problem by consciously agreeing to risk a financial loss by loaning money to consumers in the first place. The industry certainly never mentions the vast amount of resources it devotes to researching and producing rhetoric, propaganda, and psychological manipulation of consumers that is necessary in order to convince otherwise responsible consumers to enter into debt obligations--a euphemism for indentured servitude, or slavery.

In other words, "delinquent" debtors have been demonized by financial service industry propaganda in the media to the point where there is an inherent bias--a negative "gut" reaction--against any debtor who defaults for any reason--even if their job was downsized or outsourced to communist China, they were incapacitated in an accident, suffered gross hardship from a divorce or death of a spouse, or any other reason that is completely unrelated to the debtors desire and intent to repay their debts in full.

If you don't believe me, try the following experiment. I have separated various words and phrases into two categories below, and the connotation (emotional "feel") of each category is obvious. Ask yourself honestly, do you feel comfortable moving any of these words or phrases from one category to the other?

Hard Worker Saint President Philanthropist Hero

Lazy Bum Terrorist Criminal Murderer Delinquent Debtor

The question is, why would you feel that "Delinquent Debtor" is so very different from "Philanthropist", "Hero" or anything else in the first category that you cannot imagine moving it away from murderers, criminals and terrorists? Recall the recent NACBA report that showed 79% of debtors in financial trouble are in trouble because of circumstances "beyond their control"--death of a spouse, incapacitating illness, loss of job to downsizing, etc. Why would you rather classify someone who was unable to work because they were involved in a terrible car accident alongside murderers and terrorists, rather than moving them alongside heros and presidents?

After all, before that car accident, that debtor might have been doing the work of a saint--and might still be doing the work of a saint, infosar as it is possible under the circumstances?

The answer, quite simply, is that decades of carefully orchestrated financial service industry propaganda in the mass media has conditioned Americans to feel distaste whenever they hear the phrase "delinquent debtor". Notice that I said feel--not think. When you use your mind and think for yourself, you begin to realize that each debtor has their own unique circumstances. And only then might you recognize that bad things happen to truly good people which prevents them from being able to repay debts that they have every desire and intent to repay.

Trapped in an endless blizzard of media images about "members" having "privileges", and repeated assertions that only those who pay their bills on time are "responsible" consumers (rather than irresponsible debtors), we have been trained like Pavlov's dog to have an emotional, gut reaction every time we hear the words, phrases and euphemisms that financial service industry propaganda has programmed us to feel uncomfortable about.

And it is precisely this programming that allows the financial service industry to cast sane, sober, hard-working, responsible American citizens into the American Debtors Prison, with no means of escape by non-miraculous means, and in full view the the world--all without anyone even noticing.

This is an example of exactly the same fundamental principle of propaganda that allows a white supremist organization to raise children who feel nothing except digust, contempt and hate whenever they see a black person. It's a gut reaction; they aren't thinking at all. Pavlov's dog.

If you think you are so well-educated, so great a thinker, and so intuitive that you could never fall for such simple-minded brainwashing by people who serve evil interests in this world, then consider this question carefully: What was your "gut" reaction to public demands that the three black men in the news story above receive the death penalty? Don't just feel the answer, but take a moment to truly think about it. Be honest with yourself, even if you are an opponent of the death penalty on principle.

The simple truth is, if you are white, there is an overwhelming likelihood that deep down, in your gut, you felt that these three black men deserved to die (or at least receive excruciating punishment) for their crimes.

Excruciating punishment, and death, are also characteristics of the American Debtors Prison, which supposedly only applies to "deadbeats" and "deliquents".

If I haven't already made my point clear, then consider this. The news story above about brutal beatings in Littleton, Colorado is fictional. I made it up. There is no epidemic of young black men senselessly beating prosperous white men all across the United States. It never happened. However, something equally tragic did happen. Here are the known facts of that case:


It was actually three well-to-do upper middle class young white men from a city called Plantation, Florida (seriously), who are alleged to have randomly sought out minority homeless men to brutally beat and kill with baseball bats, while smiling and laughing, on the sole basis that they believed homeless persons are inherently "deadbeats", something less than human. Other than changing a few details, the brutality, savagry, and senselessness of these crimes was exactly the same as described above. The head of the victim who died six hours after being beaten (Norris Gaynor) had swollen to three times it's normal size. And the white kids who did it laughed. Their names are William Ammons, Brian Hooks, and Thomas Daugherty.

Yet there is no public outcry for these three young men to receive the death penalty. In fact, news media reports have all but exonerated these three savages by repeatedly pointing out that they came from broken homes, were bored, and smoked pot. It wasn't their fault. Something must have went wrong in their utopian, suburban upbringing that led to their "mistake". They were basically good kids who did an awful thing. They weren't evil. They weren't black. They weren't homeless. They weren't "delinquent debtors".

And so the media struggles to determine what went wrong with these young white men, what happened to them, rather than what they did. This quest for external influences that are beyond a person's control is something that the media never conducts when describing "mistakes" made by blacks, the homeless, or debtors who default. That is why there are vastly more blacks on death row than whites. That is why there are 3 million homeless people in the wealthiest nation the world has ever seen. And that is why no one acknowledges the existence of the American Debtors Prison until they have experienced it from the inside, as an inmate.

Freedom begins in the mind, and Americans have had their minds utterly brainwashed by financial service industries to believe that anyone who defaults on a debt for any reason deserves the ultimate punishment: The American Debtors Prison--a fate that may be worse than death.

It is time for Americans to wake up and begin thinking for themselves again, rather than allowing gargantuan corporations that control the mass media to program them how to feel. Only then will we stop modern day atrocities like racism, homelessness, and the American Debtors Prison.

By the way, there is, and has been for many years, an epidemic of savages beating homeless people for "fun", or out of sheer hate. This has gone on across America for years. But homeless people are not prominent attorneys, so the media has never concerned itself with this ongoing abomination.

Lastly, it is noteworthy to mention that a surprisingly large number of America's 3 million homeless people are otherwise sane, sober, responsible, good citizens, and hard-working. The only reason they don't have a home is because the are inmates in the American Debtors Prison.

But you won't see that in the mass media either--until I have completed the American Debtors Prison film.

All the best,
Paul

Bankruptcy "Reform" Law Isn't Working--Or Is It?

The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys has released a damning report concerning the efficacy of last year's bankruptcy "reform" law--at least in terms of the law's stated purpose. Unfortunately, the law's real purpose is being fulfilled magnificently.

The law's stated purpose, as indicated by its euphemistic title "The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005", is to prevent people from using the bankruptcy system as a "financial planning tool". Of course, it is sheer insanity to suggest that a poor person in the age of modern debtors imprisonment could ever conceivably use bankrupty as a tool for building wealth. However, as you may recall, the law applied almost exclusively to poor people, but did nothing to prevent corporations and wealthy individuals like Donald Trump from using bankruptcy as a financial planning tool. To quote from my own blog entry on Trump's latest bankruptcy in April of 2005:

"No such problems for Mr. Trump, however. His latest bankruptcy is the definition of smooth-sailing. Under the Chapter 11 reorganization plan, Trump's company will borrow $500 million to refurbish it's casinos, and expects to save some $98 million annually with lower interest payments."

Passage of a law that even members of Congress themselves admit was written by the credit card industry will certainly be regarded by future generations as one of the darkest moments in American history (learn more here)--as will Hillary Clinton's reprehensible role as the only senator who did not even bother to vote on the bill at all, in a sickening betrayal of the American People that could only have one selfish purpose: to enhance her chances of winning the presidency in 2008.

The NACBA's report analyzed 61,335 people who have used the services of credit counseling agencies since the law went into effect in October 2005. The report's findings are as shocking as they are predictable:

97% did not have the means to repay any debts.
79% had fallen into financial trouble due to huge medical bills, death of a spouse, or loss of a job.

Hardly the description of 61,335 "deadbeats" who are abusing the bankruptcy system as a "financial planning tool".

Which brings us to the real purpose of this "reform" law--to allow the financial service industries to exploit and manipulate consumers through predatory lending, to terrorize defaulted debtors unimpeded by constitutionally-mandated bankruptcy protection from creditor harassment (the real purpose of bankruptcy), and to force consumers into the American Debtors Prison, with no means to escape.

That purpose fits perfectly with the data obtained in the NACBA's study.

As one would expect, the financial service industries have a creative explanation for why the NACBA report contradicts everything they based their bankruptcy reform law on. AP writer Marcy Gorden quotes one banking industry public relations officer as saying that "the recent trend in filings was 'a very small snapshot of the (bankruptcy) system right now. ... We haven't gotten to a 'new normal' right now".

And with that brilliant analysis--which contradicts reason, the history of usery, and the observed facts--the banking industry walks away from one of the worst Congressional scandals in American history, unscathed.

The 'new normal' is the American Debtors Prison. Bought and paid for by the financial service industries, and delivered to your door by your own elected members of the United States Congress.

You may read the entire NACBA report here (72KB, PDF).

All the best,
Paul

The Temporal Credit Assignment Problem

The results of a scientific study on rats seems to indicate that our brains learn by going over previous events in reverse, on the premise that our last action before success was the action that resulted in success, so our brains tend to focus on that event and work backwards.

Whether or not this is true is another story. What makes this relevant to debtors imprisonment is that it relates to a well-known dilemma in decision-making theory, called the Temporal Credit Assignment Problem.

The Temporal Credit Assignment Problem basically asks the question, if you've never done something before, how do you decide where best to begin? For example, if you've never played chess before, how do you know which opening move is best the first time you play (assuming you haven't been previously tutored)? The answer, of course, is that you can't know what the best move is. You might make the best move by random chance, but you can't know what the best move is the first time you play. You learn the best moves by practice, practice, practice--just like any other endeavor in life.

Which raises the question, how does a 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 or 50-year old American citizen know how best to handle their personal finances, if they have no previous experience with finances to learn from? If their goal is financial security and prosperity, where do they begin?

The answer is that they can't know where to begin. They can only begin by making some decision--any decision, and noting the success, failure or neutrality of the result. They can then learn from the experience to inform them on their next move. That is just the way human life is.

But the American Debtors Prison does not even attempt to recognize this fact of life. Instead, like a predator, the wardens of the American Debtors Prison use the Temporal Credit Assignment Problem as a weapon against people who have little or no experience with finances--particularly young people.

For example, if you are 18 years old, recently graduated from high school, you have a lot of decisions to make that will dramatically affect the course of your life over the next several decades. Where to live? Where to work? Go to college? Who to date? What to prioritize? Who to believe? All these questions must result in conscious or unsconscious decisions, if you are to get out of bed each day at all.

It is financially suicidal for a non-wealthy citizen of a capitalist nation to go into debt, because capitalism implies freedom, and debt is slavery. To go into debt when you are 18 years old is to subjugate your freedom to the whims of another person or institution from the very beginning of your adult life. Yet 18 year olds are inundated with credit card solicitations, offers of "low interest" student loans, sales pitches for new cars and hundreds of other unnecessary toys, and business "opportunities" that might at first glance appear to offer the key to future success.

But without any experience whatsoever, how is an 18 year old supposed to make an intelligent, informed decision about credit cards, student loans, sales pitches, or business "opportunities"? They can't. The best they can do is make any decision at all, and use the results to learn how to make better decisions in the future.

It is tempting to suggest that an 18 year old may seek tutoring from teachers, books, parents, and successful friends, to help them make good decisions from the beginning. The problem here is that very few adults are capable of handling their finances responsibly--and even when they do it is accomplished by the grace of good luck, because financial security is always contigent on the whims of others. (Example: If Americans suddenly agreed that cash was worthless, and breadcrumbs were the new currency, Warren Buffet would be forced to hunt for breadcrumbs in order to eat each day--this multi-billionaire would actually have to labor in order to earn the breadcrumbs to pay for his daily needs).

Is it wise for an 18 year old to trust the advice of a credit card company when planning their financial security, considering that credit card companies operate using the same fundamental principles that drug dealers use? Is it wise for an 18 year old to trust the advice of a college student loan officer, whose job it is to approve loans that fund his own salary--loans that must be repaid by the student alone over 10 years or more, at interest, with no legal requirement for full disclosure of the consequences of default beforehand?

One of the reasons the American Debtors Prison represents a bona-fide human atrocity is because it can only exist by exploiting inherent weaknesses that are a natural part of being human, like the fact that humans cannot make wise decisions without first gaining the experience needed to evaluate those decisions. Those who use debtors imprisonment as a means of enslaving others do not go after Bill Gates or Warren Buffet--not because those men have no money (they are multi-billionaires), but because they possess enough life experience to avoid making fundamentally bad decisions with their finances (usually).

No, the wardens of the American Debtors Prison go after 16, 17, 18 year olds. They go after young, recently married couples looking to purchase their first home. They go after intelligent, but poor people who crave a higher education without the means to afford one. They go after ambitious, but inexperienced older folks who are seeking genuine "opportunities" to prosper. They do this because once imprisoned, it is impossible to escape the American Debtors Prison by non-miraculous means, and the only people who are susceptible to debtors imprisonment are those who are ignorant of the fact that debt IS slavery.

However, just like drugs provide a quick high, and one must continually get high to avoid "coming down", experimenting with debt allows inexperienced people to enjoy a new car, a college education, an XBox, or anything else that gives them a "high"--all before they have worked to pay for it. The consequences come later. But just like drugs, debtors can maintain the high by repeatedly going into debt as a means of forgetting all those bills they are obligated to pay. This is precisely the behavior that credit card companies and other creditors devote their efforts to promoting. And just like a drug dealer, as long as they can keep attracting new recruits they couldn't care less whether some of their earlier customers overdose and die--or enter the American Debtors Prison.

The American Debtors Prison is an atrocity, perpetrated by those who exploit natural human weaknesses for their own advantage, regardless of how many other peoples' lives are destroyed in the process. It is a land of predators and prey. And from the young or inexperienced person's perspective, the field of decision-making is littered with land-mines because of the Temporal Credit Assignment Problem.

Comprehending this is the first step toward avoiding the catastrophe of debtors imprisonment.

All the best,
Paul

ChoicePoint Lightly Tapped On the Wrist for Data Breach

The Federal Trade Commission has fined ChoicePoint, Inc. $10 million dollars for a "data breach" that sold personal information on 163,000 people to an alleged crime ring. ChoicePoint will also spend $5 million dollars to set up a fund to help victims of the identity theft that will inevitably result from the company's gross irresponsibility.

According to FTC chairman Deborah Platt, "This is an important victory for consumers and an opportunity for ChoicePoint to get data security right." The FTC has also proudly noted that this constitutes the largest fine it has ever imposed on a company for failure to keep personal data secure.

The problem is, this fine represents even less than a slap on the wrist to ChoicePoint. A slap on the wrist hurts. This fine doesn't.

Executive Paywatch informs us that the CEO of ChoicePoint, Derek V. Smith, enjoyed $8,960,165 in total compensation in 2004. He also received $6,639,293 by cashing out some stock options. Not only that, but Mr. Smith has another $88,882,599 awaiting him from stock options not exercised in previous years. (see details here).

In other words, for irresponsibly placing 165,000 American citizens at risk of financial catastrophe, criminal victimization and debtors imprisonment, ChoicePoint was fined less than the amount that just one of their employees "earns" in one year.

Inmates in the American Debtors Prison eventually learn the fact that their government does nothing to protect their rights, or to prevent others from harming them. But this token gesture by the FTC should make it evident to every U.S. citizen that the U.S. Government fully supports debtors imprisonment of the poor by the rich. The personal cost of this "data breach" to each victim relative to their resources is profoundly higher than the price that ChoicePoint has been required to pay in compensation.

If the U.S. government truly took identity theft and debtors imprisonment seriously, there could have been only one outcome: ChoicePoint would have had its corporate charter revoked, and its assets sold to compensate its victims. Instead, it was lightly tapped on the wrist by the Federal Trade Commission, in a manner that only lovers can appreciate.

Happy Valentines Day,
Paul