On a day when the media tells us, over and over, that we all should "feel safer", I strongly disagree. I do not feel safer, and I know that I am not alone. Today, in fact, millions upon millions of Americans feel far less safe than they did that fate-filled day in 2001. Far less safe. And from a far more dangerous enemy.
But the enemy isn't a fringe militant organization sitting thousands of miles off our shores. The enemy, in fact, is in our midst, where we live. And the damage it has wrought on this nation, and the lives, livelihoods, and families it has destroyed or now threatens combine to make this enemy far, far more menacing, and one that no military can protect us against. Consider:
In 2001, Student loan debt stood at around $150 billion. In less than a decade, this amount has grown to where it now exceeds all other categories of consumer debt, and will be blowing past $1 trillion shortly, if it hasn't already.
But this debt is different from all other types of debt in this country. Unbeknownst to the borrowers, nearly every fundamental consumer protection was removed from these loans, and the schools, lenders and government conveniently failed to inform the students of this fact. Nor did they bother to warn the citizens that there was a 1 in 3 chance that these loans would wind up in default.
Nor did they bother to inform the public that the big lenders and their collection companies, the guarantors, and even the federal government stood to make far, far more money from these loans when they defaulted rather than remaining in good stead due to the penalties and fees that could legally be extracted from the borrowers through wage garnishment, tax refund confiscation, and even the taking of citizens social security and disability income. In the home mortgage industry, this is equivalent to JP Morgan Chase, Fannie Mae, and the FHA, all, actually having a clear financial incentive for their subprime mortgages to default. Sounds unbelievable, except that it is true.
Today, we learned that the Department of Education, which already makes a healthy profit (not loss) from defaulted loans, is planning to even further "ramp up" its collection activities, and stands poised to seized the bank accounts, assets, and even the homes of our fellow citizens in its unholy quest for more of the citizens money, extracted UNEARNED from our countrymen through a structurally predatory lending system.
And yet, we should feel safer?
Feed the Beast, or Fight it:
http://www.studentloanjustice.org/...