Periodically, people here on Kos, and elsewhere in liberal Internetland suggest direct action tactics like work stoppages, general strikes, and so on, and these tactics seem to go nowhere, because the elite establishment has found ways to mitigate the damage, and to bring the hammer down on strikers, say by taking away their jobs, blocking their ability to unionize, etc.
What if I suggested there was a way to take direct action, which hits the elites right in the wallet where it hurts the most, but gives them only a limited ability to strike back?
What I'm suggesting is what I'm loosely calling the debt strike. The tactic is simple - get lots and lots of people to not make payments on various debts. Got a student loan? Stop making payments. Got a giant medical bill? Stick it to the medical industry by refusing to pay. Stop paying those credit cards, those payday loans. I'll understand if you don't want to stop paying your mortgages.
But what are the consequences of doing this? Lots of Kossacks, including myself, know through painful experience - your credit card will get charged off, your debts will go to collections, eventually they'll sue you, garnish your wages, drop your FICO score in the toilet. Here's the thing. While many of us would be dead in the water if we striked and lost our jobs, we can soak hits to our credit scores, we can tell the collectors to fuck off for a while, and in the end, we can settle the lawsuits for pennies on the dollar. Not everyone can take the hit, but a lot of us can. I do recommend that everyone participating in a debt strike read up on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act so they can shoot down the sleaziest, illegal tactics that collectors will use. Realistically, it will take several months for the collectors to put together a lawsuit, and if the debt's small, it won't be worth the trouble for them. The worst they can legally do before suing you is put nasty trade lines in your credit reports, and call and bug you, and if you call them on illegal threats, you can take them to the cleaners. You'll still have the hit on your FICO score, and you'll have trouble getting new credit, but like I said, a lot of us can take the hit and still fight. And even after you're forced to settle, much of the time, you'll settle for a fraction of the original debt (like I did in my personal financial meltdown) and the creditor will take the loss, and leave you free and clear.
In the meantime, when thousands of people are refusing to pay outrageous consumer debts, the companies that are trying to enthrall us are bleeding money. Millions of dollars are going down the drain for them. In the meantime, if there are enough people debt-striking, the courts will be filled with thousands of debt-related lawsuits, get clogged up, and they won't be able to get relief through getting a judgment, garnishing wages, putting on liens, etc.
In short, we'll have them by the balls.
Just an idea I'm throwing out there...