Financial Debt: Oppressive for Some &
Lucrative for Others
The Back Story to Financial Debt
By Luis Ángel
Pérez
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Despite the fact that we are all
naturally equipped with a brain that inevitably yearns to learn - setting stringent
barriers around the access to education has historically been a tactical
solution toward facilitating the oppression and exploitation of targeted groups
of humans while satiating the greed for power and wealth of some already
affluent humans.
As time passed, this once publicly overt
yet unnatural imposition to the human condition, and its negative consequences,
began to clash with people’s moral sensibility in an infectious manner - to the
extent where complicit business and government leaders were forced to learn of
the critical value which a humanitarian-like public image has on allowing them
to get closer to their prey.
The negative stigmas forced greedy
wealthy folks, (and purchased government officials), to close the curtains on public
displays of malicious business practices and instead open the curtains to a new
act where said practices will still be conducted only in more of a stealth
manner.
When you are trying to hide something,
you look to hide it in a place where others are least likely to look for it. Who
would ever guess to look behind ridiculously high corporate and political
financial incentives for the answer to – Why
so many people in the United
States are always in financial debt and
cannot seem to ‘shake-it-off’? Who would have ever guessed that your financial
debt is actually a goldmine for wealthy Wall- Street financial institutions and
corrupt government officials and not so much the societal burden which they so
desperately try to have you believe?
Even today, many humans, including
scholars, do not expect and thus cannot even begin to wrap their minds around how
exactly is it that other humans greatly benefit financially from another’s
financial debt.
You also have humans that own a small
inkling to the back story of financial debt in this country but opt to mostly remain
in the dark about specifics in order to inoculate “a guilty conscience” which also happens to be easily nursed by
their own personal financial gains from financial lending schemes that
intentionally produce debt.
And then you have the sadists that are
completely aware but who secretly generate much pleasure and pride in the
financial, social, and psychological demise of other humans.
Government Bail-Outs for the Rich
A Business Person & Our
Government
One particularly lucrative lending
scheme that depends on oppressing others with financial debt is known as
Predatory Lending. Predatory lending is defined by the Farlex Financial
Dictionary as, “The practice in which a
loan is made to a borrower in the hope or expectation that the borrower will
default.”
A
wealthy businessperson and current United States Presidential Candidate was allegedly
legally allowed to file for bankruptcy in our United States Government
Bankruptcy Courts on four (4) or more separate occasions in order to “clean the slate” of his immense
financial debts while repeatedly coldheartedly leaving many dedicated workers/taxpayers
unemployed and in financial and personal hardship as he repeatedly walked away from
such damages much wealthier than before.
He was also allegedly repeatedly granted
complete immunity against ethical and moral responsibility for damages imposed
upon workers as a result of his repeated reckless business ventures.
Additionally, Wall-Street Financial Institutions (Banks) continued to approve
more loans for him to default and repeat such vicious cycle.
So, why did our
Department of Justice ignore
this wealthy businessperson’s
repeated reckless business ventures and all the devastation which such behavior
repeatedly imposed upon
working poor and middle
income families?
&
Why did Wall-Street
Banks repeatedly approve more loans
for him - given his
business-failure track record?
Essentially
Because …
Creating
Financial Debt is Lucrative Business for the Wealthy
While Oppressive
to Working Poor & Middle Income Families.
The Banks & Our Government
The recent infamous financial crisis created
by predatory-mortgage lending-practices is another example of businesses getting
rewarded and protected by government and Wall-Street Banks for merely facilitating
debt upon working poor and middle income families. This financial crisis
allegedly cost the United States taxpayers $700 BILLION to bail-out the banks
that were found to intentionally create such crisis, (an amount which was
openly scrutinized by Government Officials and the Media), and approximately
$13 TRILLION, (an amount that was not openly scrutinized or discussed by neither).
Government officials used massive
amounts of taxpayer funds to bail-out the repeatedly “failed” business ventures of the wealthy businessperson mentioned
above and used massive amounts of our taxpayer funds to bail-out Wall-Street
Banks despite the known reckless and predatory nature of their business
practices - which has a devastating impact on working poor and middle income families
while further enhancing the wealth of the wrongdoers.
Working poor and middle income College
Students, however, including those clearly dedicated to ethical and moral
business practices with immense benefit to our natural environment and the
human condition, and who are slated to be critical stimulators of the economy -
are vigorously oppressed and sadly robbed of their spending and intellectual
potential to help make this world a better place for all because of predatory
lending.
Government Bails-Out-On
The United States’
Working Poor & Middle Income Students
In contrast to the government bail-outs
mention above, College Students are not allowed to file for Bankruptcy
in our Government Bankruptcy Courts in order to “clean the slate” of their huge, exponentially growing,
student-loan-debt.
As a result, students and families cannot
seem to escape damages imposed by student-loan-debt, such as (a) the permanent destruction
to credit scores, (b) the disqualification from fair mortgage loans, automobile
loans, and future student loans, (c) the suppression of access to student
transcripts and college-registration-blocks imposed by the Department of
Education, and (d) the disruption of attaining employment and promotions since
most employers today conduct financial background checks in order to justify
implicit bias in hiring and employment promoting practices, just to mention a
few.
Why so many roadblocks
to ameliorating student-debt?
Why so much
interference in ensuring that students and families secure a viable income in
order to pay back their student loans?
Essentially
Because …
Student-Loan-Predatory-Lending
Benefit Officials of
The
Department of Education, Wealthy Corporations, & the Federal Government
While
Effectively Oppressing Working Poor & Middle Income Families.
“In a leaked memo,
Sallie Mae officials have listed
preserving the inability to discharge education debt in bankruptcy
as their second most important goal.”
“The Department of Education
actually encourages schools to withhold transcripts
of those who are behind on payments.”
Which creates an unfair imposition on employment
opportunities and
on returning back to school to further enhance
one’s education and possibly earning potential.
“The Congressional Budget Office
projects that the Federal Government made
about $50 BILLION on student loans in 2013.
This is $5 billion more than ExxonMobile,
the most profitable company in the country.”
- The Huffington Post, March 24, 2014
Government Bails-Out-On
Puerto Rico’s Working Poor & Middle Income Families
If you follow the money you will see
that many wealthy people are getting richer off the backs of working poor and
middle income families. If you follow history you will see that this is merely a
familiar exploitative slave-master footprint which has hovered over the human
condition for far too long.
One of the most salient demonstrations
of the devastation that results from predatory lending is the humanitarian
crisis currently happening in the island of Puerto Rico after government officials
in Puerto Rico were allegedly repeatedly loaned large amounts of money, by Wall-Street
Banks, with the condition that they cannot pay back the interest or the
principal of the loans until many years later, (close to 50 years later).
What they failed to mention to the
working poor and middle income families of Puerto Rico is that many years later
the unpaid interest and principal of the loans will accrue to such high amount
that it would make it impossible for Puerto Rico to pay back the loans and thus
guaranteeing the island’s financial debt.
Similar to the working poor and middle income
students in the United States, Puerto Rico is “mysteriously” not allowed to file for bankruptcy in order
to “clean the slate” of their immense
financial debt while the wealthy that facilitated the debt walk away from such
humanitarian crisis much wealthier than they started.
These predatory loans are known as
Capital Appreciation Bonds and are said to work the same way as the payday
loans familiar to many poor communities.
How Does It Work?
“… there’s a secondary market for bonds, just like there’s a secondary
market for mortgages, where the lender that sold you the … (loan) … package it
up into a security, they sell it off, and it gets traded. And so, a lot of the
investors that are now buying it, which are these vulture hedge funds that are
buying at dirt-low prices and trying to make a huge profit, profits … up to
2,000 % ...”
For Example:
If, “…
something … theoretically ... is worth one dollar ($1.00),
and I’m
going to pay you five cents ($0.05) to buy it up ...
… even if I,
(sell
it off and) , get back ten cents ($0.10),
I’ve doubled
my profit.
And what
they are trying to do is collect
not just the
full dollar,
but then 800
% interest on the dollar.”
Saqib Blatti, Democracy Now’s Guest &
Director of the ReFund America
Project, Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, &
Co-Author of the new report - Puerto Rico’s Payday Loans
Puerto Rico’s Payday Loans:
The Shocking Story
Behind Wall Street’s Role in Debt Crisis
Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman & Juan Gonzalez, July 15, 2016
What Are
We Teaching Our Children -
That
Financial Greed, Oppression, & the Exploitation
of Our
Fellow Humans
Are The
Favored Principles of Our Leaders?
Everything Starts With Our Thoughts
Vision for Changes
I have a vision where humans behind the
walls of the Department of Education, humans behind the walls of Wall-Street’s Wealthy
Businesses, and humans behind the walls of our Three Branches of Government all
begin to conventionally utilize a -“What
If It Were My Family & I?” - litmus-test in order to gauge the morality
and ethics of their decisions and actions prior to implementation.
I have a vision where humans maintain unbiased
Independent Special Prosecutors, for each of these entities mentioned, who will
take public complaints serious and collaborate with one another to enforce the “What If It Were My Family & I” test
and rigorously enforce Transparency, Accountability, meaningful Training, &
quality Oversight (TATO).
I have a vision where we all come to realize
that this obsessive “cut-throat” race
toward financial superiority, off the backs of the already disenfranchised, has
historically proven to be dangerously divisive to the human condition and has historically
proven to negatively affect all humans, one way or another.
I have a vision where we come together
to legally end the facilitation of debt onto others and instead genuinely
facilitate access to quality education for all.
I have a vision where we are constantly
reminded that independent of how much money one has and independent of what one
looks like on the outside - we are, first and foremost, all human.
I have a vision where we all sing and
dance to the tune that education is a natural human right and responsibility for
all humans and that true richness essentially comes from within and is further
enhanced by what we, as individuals, project onto all humans in this brief
journey we call life.
United
We Can Do Better!
Thank you for all you
do to make this world a better place for all.
Much Love to All.
Sincerely,
Luis Ángel Pérez
Degrees in Psychology & Education
Mental Health & Social Services
Counselor
Public School Science & Mathematics
Middle School- Seventh & Eighth
Grades
Elementary School- First & Fourth
Grades
Educator & Advocate
Awareness Is Power So
Please Continue To Follow
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Window
of Opportunity
Build The Blocks That
Culture Shock,
Build The Wall To Cage
& Stall,
Distort Your Efforts To
Keep Us At Bay,
But Nature Always Finds
A Way,
Nature Always Finds The
Way.
By Luis
Ángel Pérez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gPheJSirOk
