Powerful piece. The concept of "financial literacy" itself is misleading. It assumes that working class people simply don't know enough, it puts the blame and onus on us to navigate the unnecessary complexity of financial systems that are literally built to crush us. As a millennial, I used to believe that if I just hustled and pinched pennies and saved...maybe one day, I'd be out of the red. But then I asked myself: I'm being instructed to avoid landmines, but WHY am I even walking on a minefield?!? Why is our financial system like this? That's what really woke me up to the cruelty of capitalism. I feel like I've had to face economic crisis after economic crisis, but each time, the ultra wealthy get bailed out. Thank you so much for writing this!!!
Thank you for this powerful piece. Your critique of personal finance media as gaslighting is spot on. Your call for economic disobedience, debt strikes, mutual aid, collective refusal, is essential.
But something is missing from your analysis.
You talk about "abolishing unjust debts," "breaking the financial relations between the working and ruling class," and about "collective economic disobedience."
I hope you will soon ask: who creates the debt in the first place?
Under our current system, all money is created by private banks as interest-bearing debt. When a bank makes a loan, it creates the money out of thin air, enters it into the borrower's account, and charges interest on money it created from nothing.
This is not a neutral fact or a conspiracy. Both the Fed and the Bank of England have confirmed that as true. That makes it an engine of extraction as every transaction has compounded interest embedded in it. It is the reason debt exists in the first place. It is the reason every debt strike is fighting against a system that will always create new debt to replace the old.
You are fighting the branches. The root is the private creation of money itself.
The solution is not just to "abolish unjust debts." The solution is to end the private monopoly on money creation.
We must:
1. Nationalize the 12 Federal Reserve Banks.
2. Issue all new money publicly as a debt-free, permanently circulating asset.
3. End the private monopoly on money creation.
Lincoln did this in 1862 with the Greenbacks. It saved the Union. The economy grew. The currency held.
We can do it again. The legislation is written, it is just a matter of changing the law.
Debt strikes are a powerful and important tactic. I think we need Citizen Assemblies as well. But without a strategy to change the money system itself, the tactic is endless. The system will always create new debt to replace the old.
The branches are the symptomatic issues destroying life, at the root is the money system now infested with a parasite that we can eliminate by design so the branches can flourish.
Money is MADE UP! Capitalism is designed to keep us overworked and underpaid and unable to protest the immorality of the system we've accepted as "the way things are". Capitalism is not that old, and it does not have to be how we structure our society. Debt strike now!!!!!
This is amazing and I am so glad you wrote this. Nothing drives me more nuts than condescending “financial literacy” advice to people who are struggling (and we are all struggling thanks to the Big Ugly Bill) believe me, nobody knows how to stretch a dollar like poor people! If people do make financially ill advised decisions like pay day loans or selling structured settlements, it’s out of desperation, turns out because low income is really expensive!
Financial literacy won’t raise the minimum wage, lower housing costs, or protect families from kidnapping. We’ve got long histories of resistance to draw from and now is the time to talk to our neighbors, be open about our debt, and build power so we can build liberated futures ✊
Powerful piece. The concept of "financial literacy" itself is misleading. It assumes that working class people simply don't know enough, it puts the blame and onus on us to navigate the unnecessary complexity of financial systems that are literally built to crush us. As a millennial, I used to believe that if I just hustled and pinched pennies and saved...maybe one day, I'd be out of the red. But then I asked myself: I'm being instructed to avoid landmines, but WHY am I even walking on a minefield?!? Why is our financial system like this? That's what really woke me up to the cruelty of capitalism. I feel like I've had to face economic crisis after economic crisis, but each time, the ultra wealthy get bailed out. Thank you so much for writing this!!!
Great article that highlights the importance of collective action and why “financial literacy” won’t save us.
Exactly!
To the Debt Collective Team,
Thank you for this powerful piece. Your critique of personal finance media as gaslighting is spot on. Your call for economic disobedience, debt strikes, mutual aid, collective refusal, is essential.
But something is missing from your analysis.
You talk about "abolishing unjust debts," "breaking the financial relations between the working and ruling class," and about "collective economic disobedience."
I hope you will soon ask: who creates the debt in the first place?
Under our current system, all money is created by private banks as interest-bearing debt. When a bank makes a loan, it creates the money out of thin air, enters it into the borrower's account, and charges interest on money it created from nothing.
This is not a neutral fact or a conspiracy. Both the Fed and the Bank of England have confirmed that as true. That makes it an engine of extraction as every transaction has compounded interest embedded in it. It is the reason debt exists in the first place. It is the reason every debt strike is fighting against a system that will always create new debt to replace the old.
You are fighting the branches. The root is the private creation of money itself.
The solution is not just to "abolish unjust debts." The solution is to end the private monopoly on money creation.
We must:
1. Nationalize the 12 Federal Reserve Banks.
2. Issue all new money publicly as a debt-free, permanently circulating asset.
3. End the private monopoly on money creation.
Lincoln did this in 1862 with the Greenbacks. It saved the Union. The economy grew. The currency held.
We can do it again. The legislation is written, it is just a matter of changing the law.
Debt strikes are a powerful and important tactic. I think we need Citizen Assemblies as well. But without a strategy to change the money system itself, the tactic is endless. The system will always create new debt to replace the old.
The branches are the symptomatic issues destroying life, at the root is the money system now infested with a parasite that we can eliminate by design so the branches can flourish.
such a great piece on ‘financial literacy’ as myth and misdirection
Money is MADE UP! Capitalism is designed to keep us overworked and underpaid and unable to protest the immorality of the system we've accepted as "the way things are". Capitalism is not that old, and it does not have to be how we structure our society. Debt strike now!!!!!
This is amazing and I am so glad you wrote this. Nothing drives me more nuts than condescending “financial literacy” advice to people who are struggling (and we are all struggling thanks to the Big Ugly Bill) believe me, nobody knows how to stretch a dollar like poor people! If people do make financially ill advised decisions like pay day loans or selling structured settlements, it’s out of desperation, turns out because low income is really expensive!
Financial literacy won’t raise the minimum wage, lower housing costs, or protect families from kidnapping. We’ve got long histories of resistance to draw from and now is the time to talk to our neighbors, be open about our debt, and build power so we can build liberated futures ✊