Debt, Guns, and Suicide

September 7, 2008

“Suicide is becoming an increasingly popular response to debt. [...]

“Dry your eyes, already: death is an effective remedy for debt, along with anything else that may be bothering you too. And try to think of it too from a lofty, corner-office, perspective: if you can’t pay your debts or afford to play your role as a consumer, and if, in addition– like an ever-rising number of Americans–you’re no longer needed at the workplace, then there’s no further point to your existence. I’m not saying that the creditors, the bankers and the mortgage companies actually want you dead, but in a culture where one’s credit rating is routinely held up as a three-digit measure of personal self-worth, the correct response to insoluble debt is, in fact, “Just shoot me!”

“The alternative is to value yourself more than any amount of money and turn the guns, metaphorically speaking, in the other direction. It wasn’t God, or some abstract economic climate change, that caused the credit crisis. Actual humans–often masked as financial institutions– did that, (and you can find a convenient list of names in Nomi Prins’s article in the current issue of Mother Jones.) Most of them, except for a tiny few facing trials, are still high rollers, fattening themselves on the blood and tears of ordinary debtors. I know it’s so 1930s, but may I suggest a march on Wall Street?”

from: The Suicide Solution >>

Comments

2 Responses to “Debt, Guns, and Suicide”

  1. drymartini on September 7th, 2008 1:52 pm

    Hi Elaine,

    do people really believe that the banks want their house? thats the last recource!!

    the bank would rather have the people stay in the homes and pay the mortgage. if not then they could work out some plan and stay there and make payments. It costs the bank too much to repossess the house (lost interest, legal fees, processing fees, administrative fees).

    Problem is that with the equity in the house falling below the loan value, a lot of homeowners have just chosen to not make any payments.

    and whats up with people bashing the “credit score” system. what other means does a loan officer has to decide who deserves a loan and at what rate? sure there would be glitches but if anyone come up with a better system, let all of us know.

  2. Elaine Vigneault on September 7th, 2008 1:58 pm

    Glitches? That’s an understatement.

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