Debt and responsibility
The Boston Globe recently ran one of the mammoth Pulitzer-aspiring specials papers do from time to time. The topic? Treatment of debtors.
The piece's writing assumes moral values which have somehow lost their urgency in most of the country -- values like impartiality, public trust, and above all, the dignity that belongs to every citizen, no matter the situation.
One installment described how small claims courts operate in Massachusetts. They bring presumed debtors up rapid-fire, doing very little but saying, "You owe money. Pay it or face consequences." The debt collectors are never asked to prove their cases. If the defendant does not show up, the judge rules against them; if the collector does not show up, the judge puts the case off. Often defendants are not properly notified, because the system presumes that if the summons is not returned they have received it, something often not the case. Collectors' lawyers are not prevented from consulting with defendants in the guise of court employees, or even going as far as running proceedings when the judge is late.
It is wholesale cronyism, the courts working with debt collectors as cozily as if they were business partners.
The courts do not see it that way, perhaps. Certainly they have been deluged with collectors using the small-claims system, at a volume so great that they are forced to run through proceedings as quickly as possible, cutting corners along the way. But when a system's flaws are to one party's advantage, failure to recognize and correct that system is itself favoritism.
It is one of those subtle injustices this age excels at.
Another staggering injustice is the state's use of constables to enforce court orders of payment -- sometimes the same rulings made against a citizen who did not know to appear in court because he never received the notice. In Massachusetts, these constables are allowed to assess a fee on the presumed debtor, separate from the towing fee, simply for showing up and doing their job. For this simple task, they can charge as much as $800.
A public servant using his authority to enrich himself -- driving the citizen further into a hole -- while the same public servant is supposedly working to speed the citizen's progress out of that hole -- and nobody in power seems to think that's odd?
It's another sign of a sick country. When people forget a country is a partnership, some will find ways to use its laws alone to make money, without doing anything positive to earn it. In academia, they call this "rent-seeking." Corporations would love to have us all think they make money because they win out in the market. Sometimes it's true. But a frighteningly large amount of it these days comes from chiselling out privileges and then fighting to preserve them. There will be more examples in coming posts.
I mentioned that the article was written from a moral standpoint. The frustrating part is that the standpoint was implicit. The Globe simply described outrages for all to see, without really suggesting why they are outrages. Alas, it is apparently too cumbersome a leap to those who have become used to closing their eyes to injustice.
Why is injustice so common in the world of debt? Perhaps because of the guilt and shame of so many caught there. The Globe notes that most of those being pursued do in fact owe the money. A truncheon-swinging constable demands their car, and they feel ashamed, lowly, and above all, responsible. Because they are guilty, they do not assert their rights, and, for the same reason, neither do outsiders.
This is one of the reasons Americans are now servile -- because their oppressor has so many faces. It is the same way the middle class is being assaulted. A different excuse for every jab and every cut. Divide and conquer.
To fight back, we the people must realize how our leaders are allowing these injustices to happen. On all fronts, a conspiracy is being carried out quite openly. One law they fail to enforce; another they change; and before we realize it, we are in a different world.
It is like blaming wolves alone for stalking the land, when there is also someone who let them in.
The piece's writing assumes moral values which have somehow lost their urgency in most of the country -- values like impartiality, public trust, and above all, the dignity that belongs to every citizen, no matter the situation.
One installment described how small claims courts operate in Massachusetts. They bring presumed debtors up rapid-fire, doing very little but saying, "You owe money. Pay it or face consequences." The debt collectors are never asked to prove their cases. If the defendant does not show up, the judge rules against them; if the collector does not show up, the judge puts the case off. Often defendants are not properly notified, because the system presumes that if the summons is not returned they have received it, something often not the case. Collectors' lawyers are not prevented from consulting with defendants in the guise of court employees, or even going as far as running proceedings when the judge is late.
It is wholesale cronyism, the courts working with debt collectors as cozily as if they were business partners.
The courts do not see it that way, perhaps. Certainly they have been deluged with collectors using the small-claims system, at a volume so great that they are forced to run through proceedings as quickly as possible, cutting corners along the way. But when a system's flaws are to one party's advantage, failure to recognize and correct that system is itself favoritism.
It is one of those subtle injustices this age excels at.
Another staggering injustice is the state's use of constables to enforce court orders of payment -- sometimes the same rulings made against a citizen who did not know to appear in court because he never received the notice. In Massachusetts, these constables are allowed to assess a fee on the presumed debtor, separate from the towing fee, simply for showing up and doing their job. For this simple task, they can charge as much as $800.
A public servant using his authority to enrich himself -- driving the citizen further into a hole -- while the same public servant is supposedly working to speed the citizen's progress out of that hole -- and nobody in power seems to think that's odd?
It's another sign of a sick country. When people forget a country is a partnership, some will find ways to use its laws alone to make money, without doing anything positive to earn it. In academia, they call this "rent-seeking." Corporations would love to have us all think they make money because they win out in the market. Sometimes it's true. But a frighteningly large amount of it these days comes from chiselling out privileges and then fighting to preserve them. There will be more examples in coming posts.
I mentioned that the article was written from a moral standpoint. The frustrating part is that the standpoint was implicit. The Globe simply described outrages for all to see, without really suggesting why they are outrages. Alas, it is apparently too cumbersome a leap to those who have become used to closing their eyes to injustice.
Why is injustice so common in the world of debt? Perhaps because of the guilt and shame of so many caught there. The Globe notes that most of those being pursued do in fact owe the money. A truncheon-swinging constable demands their car, and they feel ashamed, lowly, and above all, responsible. Because they are guilty, they do not assert their rights, and, for the same reason, neither do outsiders.
This is one of the reasons Americans are now servile -- because their oppressor has so many faces. It is the same way the middle class is being assaulted. A different excuse for every jab and every cut. Divide and conquer.
To fight back, we the people must realize how our leaders are allowing these injustices to happen. On all fronts, a conspiracy is being carried out quite openly. One law they fail to enforce; another they change; and before we realize it, we are in a different world.
It is like blaming wolves alone for stalking the land, when there is also someone who let them in.
posted by Minivet at 4:45 PM
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