By: Martin Rand, III

Date: November 16, 2012


There’s no question debt is a major concern in this country. Almost 80% of Americans are thousands of dollars in debt. Well, Strike Debt, an affiliate of Occupy Wall Street, thinks it has found the cure to help with the average American struggling in debt.

Strike Debt is attempting to buy and erase all the debt of the 99%. Can this really work?

They call it Rolling Jubilee. What this project allows Strike Debt to do is buy American’s debt for pennies on the dollar from the banks and lenders, and then erase it from the books completely.

“We believe people should not go into debt for basic necessities like education, healthcare and housing,” says the Rolling Jubilee official website. “Think of it as a bailout of the 99% by the 99%.”

Strike Debt relies on donated money in order to abolish the debt. The way it works is for every dollar they receive, they can buy and erase $20 worth of debt. They have already done a trail run and used $500 to get rid of $14,000 worth of debt. So far, they have raised almost $295,000 in total. That’s almost $6 million worth of debt gone.

The organization buys all forms of debt including medical, housing, credit card and some education debt. Unfortunately, they can’t buy all education debt. According to the website, a lot of the student loan debt has federal guarantees, so there’s no secondary market to buy it.

“We believe it may be possible to buy private student loans that are not guaranteed by the federal government; Strike Debt may attempt to purchase this kind of debt after doing further research,” said the website.

A large portion of Americans would love this type of debt relief. Earlier this year, student loans surpassed credit card and auto debt as the highest form of debt in the country.

The national effort started Nov 15 with The People’s Bailout. The sold out event was a variety show and telethon that featured live music, comedy and other performances. Each ticket purchased for the event was $25, $50, $100 or $250, which will be used to cut between $500-$5,000 worth of debt.

Now, before you and your friends decide to go and buy each others debt, you should know you can’t know whose debt you’re buying. That’s not how the process works.

According to the Rolling Jubilee website, various debt accounts are bundle together and sold as a whole. There is only a limited amount of information that can be obtained about the person whose debt is being bought.

“With 15% of Americans currently being pursued by a debt collector, looking for one person’s debt would be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” says the Rolling Jubilee website.

Regardless, Strike Debt efforts seem to be appreciated by the public. Various tweets have been posted praising them for helping out the lower/middle class.

“This is awesome: Rolling Jubilee – a bail out for the people by the people[,] sadly I think it’s US only,” said @schneiderhome.

This tweet by the @OccupiedTimes states, “The beautiful thing about the @RollingJubilee is it's taking radical direct action by (legally) using the system against itself. @StrikeDebt”

Can Strike Debt erase all the debt of the 99%?
  
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Of course, there are some people who aren’t too sure about the idea. Tim Worstall, business writer for Forbes, thinks that Rolling Jubilee is a good idea but it still has some issues to iron out.

“How on earth is anyone expected to finance a $300,000 purchase of a house without debt?” said Worstall in his column about the Rolling Jubilee. “But even the ill-informed can come up with a good idea which is what I think they have done.”

Worstall uses tax law as his main source of indecision. While the law states the IRS must collect on tax on all debt, with a few exceptions. The main one that sways Worstall on the side of this being a good idea is that gifts are an exception.

According to Worstall, any citizen can buy debt and then write it off as a gift. When this is done, no tax is payable upon that debt reduction. In addition, only individuals can do this and not companies or corporations.

“Yes, a reduction in the debt burden sounds like a very good idea. It’s one of the things that the economy really does rather need,” said Worstall. “And this is a way of achieving that while navigating through the minefield that is the tax system.”

This isn’t the first time Strike Debt has tried to the American people deal with the debt crisis. They also create a book called “The Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual.” This manual gives people tips and tricks on fighting the debt system. It was written by a collection of people all affiliated with OWS and striving to reduce the amount of debt in the country.

“Debt is the tie that binds the 99%, from recent graduates paying hundreds of dollars in interest every month on their student loans, to elderly homeowners underwater to the banks, to teachers and firefighters forced to take pay cuts because their cities are broke. Strike Debt links diverse individuals and communities to resist the debt system,” says The People’s Bailout website.

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