Thread by @StrikeDebt

In 2012, we bought over $32 MILLION worth of debt for just PENNIES on the dollar. But instead of collecting it––we abolished it! This is how debt cancellation became a big thing!

Here's why debt is so cheap & how we pulled off such a big stunt that we called "Rolling Jubilee."

All in all, we raised about $700k from small dollar donations and abolished over $32M in student loan and medical debt – a bailout BY the people FOR the people.

How? Well, personal debts get bought and sold for pennies on the dollar by a shadowy network of debt buyers.

Credit card debt, payday loans, private student loans and medical debt get bought and sold as "investment opportunities" on a secondary market for an average of 4¢ on the dollar.

It's an incredibly lucrative, predatory industry because it literally invests in people's pain.

Ex: Say you can't afford your @WellsFargo credit card bill and the debt builds up from interest & late fees. (Credit card companies can still profit if you default)

After 120 days of non-payment, the bank is required to get this debt off their books (they helped write this law)

.@WellsFargo will simply sell the debt to a debt buyer to remove the debt from their books. They make a quick buck and write it off to keep taxes low.

Think of this like the pollution from a factory. Instead of cleaning it up, they dump it in a river as someone else's problem.

Debt buyers get multiple accounts at once bundled in a portfolio (spreadsheet of your personal info & legal paperwork), wait until you're on your feet, then hire debt collectors to start collecting your debt.

Often, the same bank will lend money to the buyer, getting paid twice!

So, if you're called by a debt collector saying you owe $1k for an unpaid credit card debt, they might be working for an investor who never lent you anything & merely bought your debt for $40. Why can't credit card companies give you the same offer?

Since debt purchases are so cheap, buyers don't need to collect every account's debt to profit, they just need to hit profit margins. Then they sell the rest of the portfolio. Buyers often don't keep track of the paperwork needed to prove the debt is legally owed to begin with.

That's where Rolling Jubilee comes in: Instead of collecting the money we bought, we abolished it and liberated thousands of people - illuminating the phony morality of debt. Debt buyers invest in our pain and we owe them nothing.

rollingjubilee.org

We also bought unpaid tuition bills from a predatory for-profit university called Corinthian College Inc. (@KamalaHarris investigated them). We got $3.9M of debt from 2,761 students, then organized them to refuse to repay the loans. You can read here:

huffpost.com/entry/corinthi…

2015 was our first student debt strike. We demanded the Obama administration start enforcing the law and discharge debt. We helped abolish over $1 BILLION of student debt.

There is power in a debtors' union. Next is all $1.7 trillion! dissentmagazine.org/online_article…

BUT, we always knew we couldn't buy everyone's debt. The Rolling Jubilee was the spark, but debt strikes would be the powder keg. That's why we formed a DEBTORS' UNION.

Alone our debts are a burden. Together they make us powerful. debtcollective.org

We already know on day 1, @JoeBiden has the authority to cancel all federal student debt with the stroke of a pen (see thread below)

But we won't wait on them. Join our debt strike TODAY: strike.debtcollective.org

https://twitter.com/StrikeDebt/status/1325112921450536961?s=20