EDITORIAL
Chained to debt
The clouds of a worldwide capitalist economic whirlwind are
not just gathering any more. The storm has already begun. Japan
is in deep crisis. Here, each new day brings word of more
layoffs. The stock markets are in turmoil. Tens of millions of
people who have carefully planned their lives to survive all
the pitfalls of this most ruthless of all capitalist
countries--no universal health care, no welfare, no long-term
unemployment insurance, no public affordable child care, no
low-cost housing, limited mass transit--are either already in
pink-slip shock or are staying awake nights wondering how
they'll pay all the bills if their job gets axed.
So what is the Bush administration doing about it? What
wonderful plans does this compassionate conservative have for
us all?
The administration is pushing through a bill making it much
harder for people to declare bankruptcy. Suddenly bad credit is
a sin. Senators are crowding to the podium to denounce those
who have maxed out on their credit cards or who found that
buying a house, a car and some furniture has put them over the
limit. "In my 40 years of dealing with Congress on bankruptcy
legislation," says Lawrence P. King, a law professor at New
York University, "this is the worst I have ever seen."
Of course, a year ago these borrowers were the consumers who
were going to juice the economy. In fact, the banks, finance
and credit card companies sent out 3 billion solicitations last
year trying to get us to buy, buy, buy and worry about how to
pay later. "Easy credit!" they said. "If your bank says no,
Champion says yessss!"
The banks also got Congress to toss out the Glass-Steagal
Act that separated banking from the stock brokerage business.
Then began a huge campaign. Banks' "investment advisers" dogged
customers with any savings, giving them glowing projections on
how much they would gain by putting their money into the stock
market. The bankers, of course, get a commission on every
trade. But now the market is bear territory, people's savings
are disappearing, and all of a sudden the same banks and
corporations are demanding new legislation to keep a chain
around the legs of debtors.
It's expected to pass the Senate soon. This is an issue on
which working-class organizations can take the lead in
defending all debtors from such onerous legislation.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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