Hold the Mayo

October 16, 2011

Sign of the Times

I described briefly in the post below how I have been looking at a lot of material trying get a clearer understanding of what exactly the Occupy Wall Street and its subsidiary protests around the country are all about. One thing I didn't do was bookmark a lot of the information or make a note of where I saw what. Which is too bad because this post is all about a picture of a sign I saw in the hands of a protestor - I just don't remember where I saw it.

The sign read "Debt = Slavery." It stuck with me for it's simple overwhelming stupidity.

Slavery is involuntary servitude. It is a human being sold as property to another. It is bondage.

Debt is a freely chosen obligation. Debt is your promise to repay money that was loaned to you. Debt is a contract.

If you think debt is evil and equal to slavery, the solution is really very simple: DON'T. BORROW. MONEY.

You don't borrow. You have no debt.

I understand that being in debt isn't fun. I really really understand that. A lot. But it's not slavery. No one forced you or me into debt.

Your sign would make just as much sense - or just as little - if you substituted any other negative on the planet.

"Debt = Measles" or "Debt = Toenail Fungus."

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 04:28 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment

1 This "debt = slavery” might be one of those, "just a moment”, kind of interpretations. For centuries wise council has indicated the link between debt and being a slave to it; while not the same as involuntary servitude, indentured servitude did indeed make people slaves until the debt was paid in full. Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet where Polonius counsels his son Laertes, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be…”, basically stay out of debt. During the time this was written, property owners who wished to live beyond their means often had to sell of their estates a portion at a time and on rare occasion ended up in debtor’s prison when all other means of repayment had run out. The idea of intentionally placing yourself in a position which might lead to debtor’s prison would be insane.

Here in America there is no such thing as debtor’s prison, except for the mental anguish which accompanies staggering debt. Large debt limits social mobility and could be compared to self imprisonment. Slavery can also be a term applied incrementally as to how much an individual is tied to a particular lifestyle. Tennessee Ernie Ford made a record; you may or may not remember, "I owe my soul to the company store”. Folks who live paycheck to paycheck are generally in debt so far that they have no choice but to show up Monday morning just to maintain their mortgage and other regularly occurring bills; and such a lifestyle has often been compared to being a slave to your bills.

This exercise in word play was much more fun than trying to explain to an old acquaintance who refuses connect the facts, that these "occupiers” are nothing more than useful idiots who either intentionally or unwittingly are supporting a well planned attempt to destroy the foundations of our constitutional republic and our capitalistic free market system.

Posted by: T.F. Stern at October 16, 2011 05:16 PM (Ruh11)

2 While I understand that it is possible to "feel" imprisoned by debt or to "feel" enslaved to the obligation to repay a debt, that feeling does nothing to change the objective meaning of the words "debt" or "slavery."

I don't accept someone's feeling as a valid political or philosophical argument. And that is what the person with the sign was attempting to do: use their negative feeling about having to repay a freely chosen obligation as a political and philosophical argument.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at October 16, 2011 07:00 PM (KGD+C)

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