If you don't show up for court (which is what usually happens), they'll get a default judgment, and with it, the legal right to raid your bank account and your paycheck. That, in turn, is an *asset* that, once again, the debt collector can sell to an even scummier bottom-feeder, pocketing a lump sum.

McKenzie doesn't know what will fix this. But #MichaelHudson, a renowned scholar of the debt practices of antiquity, has some ideas.

23/

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Hudson has written eloquently and persuasively about the longstanding practice of #jubilee, in which all debts were periodically wiped clean (say, whenever a new king took the throne, or once per generation):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/24/grandparents-optional-party/#jubilee

Hudson's core maxim is that "debt's that can't be paid won't be paid."

24/