*sigh* Countless people who don’t read our blog but know of it flooded our Facebook and twitter accounts with messages like this one “Didja seeee what Congress did?! Are ya gonna write about it?!” Each time we said yes just to see if anyone would actually follow up. We said we’d write an article if anyone ever did. Guess what?

But here at Debtors Prison we believe that if someone writes the truth and nobody reads it, it’s still righteous. And the truth is that 1) any fool could tell you Congress wouldn’t act 2) the difference in interest rates wouldn’t help the vast majority of us 3) we’ve reached a new stage where even a dramatic decrease in PRINCIPLE OWED would be meaningless to a lot of us.

Wow, Congress couldn’t agree on something? Really?? Remember last summer when Congress refused to maintain reasonable interest on the country’s own debt by forcing the first ever downgrade in our credit rating? Yeah and you thought they were gonna help YOU out? Ha!

And did someone forget we’re just talking about interest? The rate at which your debt is GROWING. Think of it like this. You’re running behind a train a quarter-mile ahead of you and its MAINTAINING it’s 38 mile per hour speed and original destination instead of accelerating to 60 something going someplace farther away. That’s all an extension would have done folks.
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It’s been a while.  When you’re a doctor you end up saying that a lot, especially around friends. Like most black folk, after the initial rage at the Trayvon shooting subsides we reflect on our lives and blessings start thinking about other shit we’re mad about. Mine is health disparities.  Perhaps they are related.  I mean if you had a statistical reason to believe that any meal could be your last before being gunned down by a cop or being wrongfully incarcerated perhaps chicken and ribs would be an appropriate diet.   I have no idea what Simon eats (I am a lousy girlfriend) but subconsciously I am sure I don’t worry about it as much because he’s white. How messed up is that?

As I slave away at my fellowship, becoming a full-fledged doctor in my chosen field is within site.  But I am 32. And I am still poor.  My finance major friends are at a point where there investments yield interest that is equivalent to my salary.  But hey, at least I am helping people right? Well sorta.  Patients.  One at a time. Who would be helped by someone else who would have gotten this spot in this fellowship if I didn’t exist.  I would have preferred to work in policy where my work had the potential to help many people and couldn’t have been accomplished by some other shmuck willing to stay in school until they were 40.

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It takes a lot to get one of us to write these days.  Alpha Man promised me a simple explanation of the crux of the Occupy Movement’s issues and he has yet to deliver.  Me, I am content for the time being just to be part of something.  Looking for an answer beats looking for a job. Probably because unlike a job, I know the truth exists.

However I had to tell you guys about this: M.I.T. is providing free, online education that now comes with a certified credential that exhibits mastery of the material. I am including the link below

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2011/12/21/m-i-t-game-changer-free-online-education-for-all/

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Hi folks! We here at Debtor’s Prison are pleased to introduce Rebecca Smith who has been kind enough to write a guest column.  We are impressed with Rebecca’s work and hope she will write for us again.

REBECCA SMITH

The latest chapter of a painful story that began years ago was the debt fight that continued in the capital of the nation and the ensuing credit downgrade by the Standard & Poor’s.  In the last decade, the banks, consumers and the homeowners became bloated with too much leverage or borrowed a huge amount of money and this resulted in a drastic shrinkage of credit throughout the entire economy, a particular phenomenon that is financially known as ‘deleveraging’. Apart from the big picture, the consumers too were worried about the ways in which they can seek debt relief so as to stay out of the debt cycle.

The present situation of the US is nothing new and the government has been grappling with such issues and has also been throwing billions to dollars to provide a quick cure from such problems. Even after continuous meetings and steps taken to assess and improve the current state of the US economy, there has been no positive result that is noticeable. Though the labor market reports were slightly positive in the month of July and August, 2011, yet there has been no such noticeable increase in the growth of jobs within the market that could alleviate the spurring unemployment level. Gut-wrenching market plunges, accompanied by multiple negative aspects of the economy show that the economy is losing steam. Despite all such nerve-wracking events within the US economy, very few expect the policymakers to reveal some new stimulus plans to rejuvenate the lost shine of the nation.

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A lot of problems have simple solutions. Take the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinian Statehood with Independent sovereignty of Jerusalem and the West Bank with each side alternating control every four years. Problem solved, you’re welcome world. But that ain’t getting pitched at Camp David and Applebaum’s legislation ain’t getting proposed in Congress despite the high probability of it working.

True, there are the Benitos and Triforces of the world. I would argue however that most individuals with high debt loads acquired them because they desired a certain material lifestyle and their loans are the chief obstacle preventing the employed individuals from purchasing the toys they associate with their high powered jobs.

The average person with a heavy student debt load has also made friends with many many rich people so they have specific toys they want to buy. These people have been trained to view consumption as a birth right. Give them more money and they will buy.
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So I am sure you all have seen Robert Applebaum’s petition to President Obama. I for one am in favor of it and like Charlie Brown kicking a football think it could happen.

However, instead of my thoughts and reasons which simply would echo Robert’s in a less eloquent unresearched fashion let’s here from Alpha Man who is in favor it but thinks it will never happen and Mike Triforce who is against it but feels it could get pushed through.

By way of background Robert is essentially proposing legislation that forgives student loans AS AN ECONOMIC stimulus. Obviously, like all of us Robert believes that we have suffered an injustice and that’s the main motivation for the bill, however the OFFICIAL argument is that this will promote spending, stimulate demand for things, create jobs or whatever. Think of it like Republicans and tax cuts. Republicans like tax cuts for the rich because they are rich and the rest of the country be damned. However they argue that tax cuts are good for the economy because they allow small business owners to hire more people than they would otherwise and make the country more attractive to international corporations who can set up shop anywhere.

So, let’s get to arguments. Mike Triforce first.

In my last post I wrote that a lot was going on that might make it seem like on surface progress of some kind was being made.  Unfortunately this optimism doesn’t hold up to any kind of rigorous analysis.  It’s like if you’re trying to get somewhere and you don’t know where it is all the while you’re running out of gas.  So you stop.  After all, what’s the point of continuing driving when you have no gas and don’t know where you’re going?  So you send your passenger out to explore while you guard the car and after awhile they come back and say there is a gas station two miles up the road.  Great.  But you’ve still got pay for that gas, and you still don’t know where you are going.  That’s kind of like what is going on here.

What we have here, or essentially what we are witnessing, is the solidification of the student debt “scam” as just one of those those unjust facts of life.  Think of it as Republicans only protecting the interests of the rich or wanting to cut any sort of health care safety net.  Republicans have been the same in that respect for 40 years AND WE KNOW THIS.  They still get elected and raise money the same way.  Every now and then when something becomes OUTRAGEOUS there’s a small re-adjustment but nothing FUNDAMENTALLY changes.

There are several reasons for this.  Read on for the discussion

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Yep.  Even at this late date I could give a shit.  So the Republicans/Conservatives/Tea Partiers/People of hereditary privilege have found yet another way to trip up this President.  But what have we REALLY learned about the National Debt? Throughout this entire non-newsworthy debacle?

1) Congress has always overwhelming voted to raise the debt ceiling.

Why? Because it’s necessary.  Why aren’t they doing it now?  Let’s see…what major thing about Washington, the White House specifically, is different? No, it’s not that it’s a black President, there is just something magical about the number $14 trillion.  That’s just the natural limit for a country’s indebtedness.

2) Rich People are gonna get their money

Get real people.  There isn’t going to be any kind of default.  This is coming out of social security checks for old people and paychecks for our nation’s servicemen.

3) White people love money more than they love feeling superior because they are white

White people have had this choice before.  At the end of the Civil War rich white people could have devoted some of their slaves to the Confederate War effort and possibly saved their racial hierarchy.  But they decided overwhelmingly not to do this.  Robert E. Lee who popular legend would have you believe abhorred slavery, fought his father in-law’s will freeing his slaves because…he wanted money.  And he wanted to lead the Confederate forces because he thought his military career would advance quicker as the George Washington figure of a new country.

All that is to say that white people who make above X amount a year ALWAYS act in their self-interest.  Maybe that is true of all people who make above slave wages, as I have never heard of an Arabian Prince actually committing rather than just simply planning a suicide bombing.

Ugh.  I am tired of writing about this.  It took me 20 damn minutes to figure out how to load the icon that is my signature.  I just wanted to be on the record in late July saying I still don’t care one bit about the National Debt.  It’s a non-issue, like a runny noise is a non-disease.  I don’t care if you can’t find a tissue, or need a tissue for your runny damn nose while I’m sitting in the corner bleeding out.

Not sure if you can see my icon.  Obviously we are experiencing technical difficulties.  rest assured I’m KF Li.

Checking in. Just studying for the CA bar.  Currently the plan is to pass the CA bar (which if you recall doesn’t require a JD) and then in Feb sit for the NJ bar using my CA law license in lieu of a JD.  I figure the chances of both the CA and NJ folks showing borderline competence at the same time and thereby discovering my ruse are pretty slim.  Then yeah, hang out in law school while searching for that lottery client who can get me verdict I need to clear my debts, invest the remainder and live off the interest.  I have nothing by the way of infrastructure to actually litigate a case, so it’s going to have to be one heck of a demand letter.
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One of the good things about losing a string of posts is that it gives you some time to reflect on what you wrote . With respect to the Thomas Jefferson Law School lawsuit I feel I originally failed to get at the real crux of the matter.  For those of you unfamiliar an unemployed law grad with excellent grades is suing her alma mater for false advertising because they materially misrepresented their employment statistics to her when she was considering matriculating.

Triforce and Alpha Man had a long fight about it and I sat on the sidelines eventually reluctantly agreeing with Triforce that there was no case because there was no precedent, no specific guarantee was made, and because surely there were enough employed individuals from this school so as to make the premise easily rebuttable.  I didn’t even touch the Triforce slippery slope/don’t hate the player argument. Alpha Man muttered something about cracker lawyers under his breath but stuck to his guns about consumer fraud and the seriousness of a potential FTC violation.
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