The politics of debt

Submitted by Kent Sensenig on August 24, 2007 - 9:51pm.

Hey beatitudinous ones:

Just to throw out one more follow-up to Michael Moore's "Sicko" movie... Towards the end of the documentary, Moore suggests that the escalating cost of things like medical care (hospital bills are the #1 cause of personal bankruptcies in the US), college/graduate education (I think you can relate!), and (especially in places like LA) home ownership (not to mention the looming/incessant pressure to hoard money for your own retirement, because the government, or your family, won't take care of you!) means that many working and even middle classes folks have a great deal of pressure to a) take whatever job(s) they can get, especially if there are any kind of benefits included; and b) not "rock the boat"/challenge the practices of the (often globalized) companies/corporations they work for (like, for example, by trying to organize a labor union), for fear of losing their job and being overwhelmed by debt or a sudden illness or accident. (The most common form of slavery throughout history has been "debt slavery," after all!)

In other words, an economic system that (by process of normal operation) places most non-rich folk heavily in debt (already in young adulthood), has gone a long way to neutralizing potential political dissent and grass-roots organization to promote alternative paths of living. Folks working two or three jobs, or going broke, don't have much time/energy to volunteer for much of anything (including being with their families), let alone "fighting the system" on behalf of the common good! For example, only 7% of private sector workers in the US are represented by unions, and the tactics by which corporations actively punish workers who try to form unions is widely documented. Federal rules over the last 25 years (since Reagan, but including Clinton) have increasingly stacked the deck in corporate management's favor. Existing unions have never been weaker, yet they still make a significant, measurable, positive impact on worker wages/benefits/security/dignity etc. (for all their warts).

This is why social democratic systems that provide largely subsidized or even "free" higher education and health care (pretty much all of Western Europe and Canada)--and are much more highly unionized as a percentage of the work force--allow for their citizens to more actively/freely seek reform within their society, without the heavy counterweight of debt and "down-sized" jobs to worry about. (Of course, one of the biggest debt traps these days is consumerism itself: the double-whammy of providing constant/easy credit--credit cards--while simultaneously bombarding everyone with enticements to "shop to you drop," even from the comfort of your computer! Shopping has, in fact, become the one demanded patriotic duty for US citizens, as we now handle our wars through an essentially mercenary army and private contractors like Parsons of Pasadena, which is heavily involved in Iraq, and, I noticed, sponsored the recent grand re-opening celebration of the renovated Pasadena city hall! Target was also heavily featured at this event: their mascot dog was even allowed to conduct the orchestra for a song in a high moment of civic pride.)

But providing inexpensive or free higher education and health care would mean cutting into a) the $600 billion per year in tax revenue going to the military-industrial complex, and b) the massive tax cuts for the richest 5% and even 1% of Americans, in slashed "capital gains" tax rates, for example.

Well, enough rambling! I guess I am just trying to point out how real (and political) an impact being constantly and heavily in debt makes on stifling vibrant family and community life and an active citizenry/social movements for the common good (or, for that matter, the pursuit of less lucrative careers in the "common good" areas of civil society, including the volunteer sector).

Maybe this is a theme Beatitudes Society can pursue in the coming year.

Peace in Christ (who declared "Jubilee" at Nazareth),

Kent Davis Sensenig

Fuller Seminary (Pasadena, CA)

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