When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence?
This week I've seen a few documentaries, including Sicko. I'm a Michael Moore fan, and yes, I know that his work is manipulative. He glosses over the details and uses showmanship in order to make a point. Just like the Daily Show or the Colbert Report, satire becomes the way to deliver bad news in an entertaining way.
Sicko is very good, and I highly recommend it. But I also strongly recommend Maxed Out, a documentary about the dangers of consumer debt and the predatory lending practices of the major banks.
There is a common thread in both films: Americans are so overwhelmed with debt that they become fearful and demoralized. As a result, they don't become politically engaged. They don't speak up at work or protest on the streets, for fear of being fired (example: in "liberal" San Francisco, a Chronicle employee was fired after protesting the Iraq war). Living on the edge, they can't afford to lose their jobs or medical benefits, and if they do, there is not much of a safety net (if any) that helps them.
Americans are encouraged to consume all of the time, and with slick advertising we are told that living beyond our means is acceptable because it allows us to attain happiness in life. What is happening to our society?
The government has abandoned us. They pass laws that empower corporations and cut taxes for the most wealthy. They have stealthily manipulated the message about tax cuts so that a good number of the non-rich (not sure how to describe the poor, working poor, working class and middle class anymore, since there isn't much difference apart from the neighborhood they live in) believe that repealing the tax cuts would be a bad thing. Why people don't understand that the tax cuts went to the wealthiest among us and that if they were repealed it could mean more services for those at the lower end of the pay scale, I don't know. Slick propoganda, I guess? Taking the president at his word?
Now, there is a personal responsbility issue here - surely people have to use better judgment when it comes to credit. I consider myself an educated person, knew the dangers of credit cards, and still ended up over my head with credit card debt. It became easy to justify and then very easy to depend on the credit cards. The higher my debt got, the more credit card offers I was sent. I was able to change my living situation last year so that I could pay them off. I'm almost debt-free (thank god) but it took some dramatic changes to get there. One thing I've noticed is that as my debt decreased, so did the number of credit card offers. In fact, I can't remember the last time I got an offer in the mail. Not that I want them, but you would think that my ability to pay them off demonstrates that I would be a good customer? Apparently not...
Maxed Out addresses this: why do the banks offer more credit to people who will most likely not be able to pay it back? Two reasons, according to the film: 1) paying the minimum amount means you will be paying them forever, and that means indefinite income for the bank and 2) at any time they can sell off the debt to a mutual fund or other group of investors who are now buying and selling debt in the free market. Worst case? You default and stop paying. Then they sell your debt to a debt collector, which is essentially a financial bounty hunter. The only way out for many people was bankruptcy... so in 2005, a bankruptcy "reform" bill was passed that made it harder for people to declare bankruptcy. Nice, huh?
Now what?
In my opinion, everyone should figure out how to get out of debt. Sometimes this requires dramatic life changes. But you need to be free from it. I know some people that went to Consumer Credit Counseling - I can't recommend it myself (having not used it) but I know it is working for some people I know.
School loans: borrow from the federal government and only pursue private, alternative student loans as a last resort and only after extensive research. Make sure that you are working toward a job after graduation that will allow you to make your student loan payments (in other words, don't borrow $100K+ if you want to be a public school teacher). There are repayment calculators on the loan website to help you figure this out. If you can, work while you are in school so that you can borrow less. I did this and it really helped me. My grades suffered, yes, but having several years' work experience made finding a good job post-graduation easier.
Never use those check cashing/cash advance places. Ever.
My point in all of this is to say that the government and the political leadership has abandoned the American people. They do not care if you end up in financial ruin, or if you die because your HMO won't approve a medical procedure. These are the people that were elected to represent our interests. But they are funded by corporations and as a result, they are working for the corporations, not us. Freedom, in our modern society, means freedom from corporations running your life... and I hope I'm getting there.
2 comments:
Ah there's the Bextravagant we know and love!
Mark was just telling me about a book he'd read that talks about the way that advertising and corporations dictate so much of our lives, and how slick and packaged everything has gotten, and the insidiousness of it all (like the "rewards cards" at supermarkets - save 7 bucks on your purchases, but be tracked and cataloged and intensely marketed to for all your live long days... or live short days, depending on what nasty processed products you get hooked into buying and using on a regular basis from the aforementioned aggressive advertising!). On Which Way LA the other day (I think, maybe some other NPR show) there was a guy talking about how the language we use to discuss and operate the economy is all wrong on various levels - we should not be called consumers, because to consume is to use up, and really we should be users, that it's awful how expendable and non-viable so many products are, and it's all designed, along with heavy heavy advertising, to keep us consuming. Planned obsolescence and all that. So gross. Also mentioned all the ways in which Adam Smith's 'invisible hand of the market' is a total fallacy and that in this day and age it is absolutely not a free market, etc etc.
I'm glad you are talking about all this on these pages. It's hard to try live simply in this day and age of consume consume consume, with housing prices so high, and wages so low and health care so high and employer contributions so low... This is something I think we all talk about in small groups and amongst certain peers, but I wonder what would happen if it became a broader discussion? We'll have to discuss further...
Speaking of purchases, though, I need to find some good flights to AZ for next month!
Happy 4th, Bex. Here's wishing Independence from all the bullsh*t for all of us.
Thanks for responding, doll!
It's disturbing how everything we do over the Web (like this blog) or our use of credit cards/debit cards is tracked and monitored by crediting and marketing agencies. Then, that data is made available for sale to anyone, including the government (One company is Choicepoint, remember them?)
Then, the intentional wastefulness of consumer goods - scary. In the documentary The Corporation (the film that convinced me to go to law school) there is a discussion of Monsanto's efforts to develop seeds that expire after one harvest - this way farmers have to buy new seeds every year. Sick!
Btw, flights are expensive down to Phoenix, it looks like! Yikes! But let's figure it out. I'd love to show you my home, filled with new consumer goods from Ikea and the like (ha ha!).
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