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John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

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Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#211

Post by partiallypro »

Blackthorn wrote: post #180
partiallypro wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At the end of the day it's a comedy show not a news show and his job is to make people laugh He and Jon Stewart keep (kept in the case of Jon) using this excuse when they get things wrong, but when they get things right they take all the glory they can get. The show(s) have to have some sort of accountability. For example Couric was just ripped for adding 6 seconds of dead air on a documentary....but that's literal…

> He and Jon Stewart keep (kept in the case of Jon) using this excuse when they get things wrong, but when they get things right they take all the glory they can get. It's not meant to be an excuse, it's meant to be an accusation. If a comedy show is so much better at news than a news show, that's a major failing on the part of actual news shows.

In some cases they are better, in other cases they are immensely worse; especially during their taped interview segments. But when we compare "news" most people are looking at 24/7 cable "news" which is full of commentators that are told to say outrageous things and to argue, for the purpose of ratings. That's usually where The Daily Show, et all get their meat. The irony of the Daily Show is that while critiquing cable news commentary it often does the -exact- same thing, but they cover it as if they are the objective ones. To their credit, on cable news, you already know everyone's bias if you're a regular viewer. The Daily Show et al, on the other hand, do not; which gives the illusion of objectivity.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#212

Post by scotty79 »

pessimizer wrote: post #133

I was a little disappointed in how this story developed; it started with a family being destroyed by medical debt, and I thought it was going to develop into a discussion of medical debt, which accounts for 60% of bankruptcies in the U.S.[1]. Instead, it just talked about the buying and selling of debt, which is a legitimate business (often unregulated and operated by scum.) I'm not sure what he was calling for, here…

> legitimate business (often unregulated and operated by scum.)

That's comedy gold. Wish John used that line.

> I'm not sure what he was calling for, here. That companies be required to hold on to their own debt?

I think he's calling for regulation. At least some mechanisms to ensure that the debt is factual. Maybe some mechanisms that would ensure people can't collect the debt that they can't legally enforce. Maybe some mechanisms that would prevent accepting debt by default when someone doesn't show up to court. All these things lead to much abuse. Basically something that would address the problems he highlighted.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#213

Post by sdenton4 »

hellofunk wrote: post #143
smt88 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Example(s) where that makes the show less factual? I don't watch it and am curious.

It's more a problem of only using convenient evidence and omitting other facts that might make the show's argument weaker. Nothing is so much "not factual" on the show as it is often "incomplete" and "heavily spun." It's genuinely an enjoyable show, however, especially if you side with the attitude it offers. But not unlike some Michael Moore documentaries, a fair amount of it can be tossed up to propaganda.

We've got two things happening in journalism today: total partisan hackery and 'unbiased' 24 hour news network boulsheet.

What Oliver is doing is pretty thoughtful, well-researched argumentation, something completely missing from both of those dominant modes. And something that's between an essential part of civic discourse from Plato to quite recently...

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#214

Post by awesomerobot »

rm2889 wrote: post #171

If debt is trading at pennies on the dollar, and I owe someone 5k, what's stopping me from borrowing 50 or 100 bucks from a friend (if I dont have it) and buying back my debt? Do you need to buy in bulk? Here's an idea - aggregate debt at pennies on the dollar and sell it back to the debtor at twice the amount it'll still be pennies on the dollar and you'll make a nice profit.

>Here's an idea - aggregate debt at pennies on the dollar and sell it back to the debtor at twice the amount it'll still be pennies on the dollar and you'll make a nice profit.

That's essentially what a lot of debt collectors will accept. If you have debt in collection, sometimes you can offer them a lump sum instead of the whole amount and they'll take it because they're looking to simply profit.

At that point it's likely your credit is already ruined though... which is a whole different topic to broach.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#215

Post by hellofunk »

sdenton4 wrote: post #213
hellofunk wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more a problem of only using convenient evidence and omitting other facts that might make the show's argument weaker. Nothing is so much "not factual" on the show as it is often "incomplete" and "heavily spun." It's genuinely an enjoyable show, however, especially if you side with the attitude it offers. But not unlike some Michael Moore documentaries, a fair amount of it can be tossed up to propaganda.

We've got two things happening in journalism today: total partisan hackery and 'unbiased' 24 hour news network boulsheet. What Oliver is doing is pretty thoughtful, well-researched argumentation, something completely missing from both of those dominant modes. And something that's between an essential part of civic discourse from Plato to quite recently...

I do like the show, but it is also very partisan and biased.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#216

Post by yo-code-sucks »

bko wrote: post #66
coderdude wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

My main problem with John Oliver is that he often chimes in on subjects he doesn't know anything about with folksy common sense logic that is often wrong. I remember him mocking some system for using tapes for storage on the belief that a technology that is so old cannot possibly be useful in modern technologies. In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel. How does he think things happen? Some mag…

Using excel to pass around data that should be encrypted, in the context of debt if borderline illegal, if not completely.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#217

Post by fixermark »

bayesian_horse wrote: post #97
ThomPete wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats the reason why I stopped watching it too. No doubt it has something but it's just too one sided IMO. It's bashing from a very specific political angle. I.e. it always possible to know what side of critique he is going to fall down on, and that for me isn't interesting.

Somehow, comedians falling on the "political right" side of the argument are rarely funny or insightful...

Dennis Miller was quite good back in the day.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#218

Post by stanmancan »

bko wrote: post #66
coderdude wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good show (he's funny and you learn stuff) but it's way too preachy. He gets just a little too excited about things that are basically impossible for anyone to get excited about. Clearly pandering to the young, left crowd. I'm sure it makes some people feel very warm at night but it gives me a bad taste in my mouth after binge watching.

My main problem with John Oliver is that he often chimes in on subjects he doesn't know anything about with folksy common sense logic that is often wrong. I remember him mocking some system for using tapes for storage on the belief that a technology that is so old cannot possibly be useful in modern technologies. In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel. How does he think things happen? Some mag…

    In his latest clip, he mocks information being passed by Excel.
He wasn't mocking that information was being passed via excel, he was mocking _what_ information was being passed via excel. The fact that companies can but and sell excel documents with a name, address, SIN, and debt amount, and that's it. No contracts, no history, no anything, just, this person now owe's you $X.

Also, I find it incredibly irresponsible how the customers information is handled. They quite literally email spreadsheets around with thousands of names, addresses and SIN numbers. If someone nefarious got their hands on just one of the many thousands of those documents floating around, it's a great starting place for identity theft.

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#219

Post by fixermark »

dominotw wrote: post #188
dvcrn wrote: post #43

As a non-american guy that has never seen John Oliver before, I found it very hard to sit through the entire thing until the end, though the payoff was definitely worth it. This guys looks to me like he's been in TV for a little too long and tries very hard to find a audience with very simple jokes (that feel kind of forced) amplified by background laughter. He has the right idea and did the right thing but I persona…

I too find it too hard to watch without cringing. He has a whole team of writers and the best they come up with is some sarcastic comments at someone's expense. Laughing at people is not 'social commentary', its lowest form of dumb comedy with horrible laugh tracks ( i thought we were done with silly laugh tracks ?) I always thought this was a dying genre but seems like young ppl are into it?

Vaudeville never dies; it just changes costumes. ;)

Re: John Oliver buys $15M in debt and forgives all of it on 'Last Week Tonight'

#220

Post by cdetrio »

xhrpost wrote: post #50
orblivion wrote: post #38

There's a program called The Rolling Jubilee which has been doing this for a few years. I think the idea is that it encourages people to help pay off the next person's debt, since the amount they were forgiven is much more than it cost to buy it: http://rollingjubilee.org/ I believe that this is an offshoot of the Occupy movement.

"But as of December 31st, 2013, we have stopped accepting new donations." Would love to see someone new come in and start doing the same.

The pivot from rollingjubilee.org (which uses donations to buy discounted debt and abolish it) to debtcollective.org (where debtors can register and organize "debt strikes") was explained in a NYT column[1]:

> Until now, we have worked in the secondary debt market, using crowdfunded donations to buy portfolios of medical and educational debts for pennies on the dollar, just as debt collectors do. Only, instead of collecting on them, we abolish them, operating under the belief that people shouldn’t go into debt for getting sick or going to school. [.....] But this approach has its limits. Federal loans, for example, are guaranteed by the government, and debtors can be freed of them — via bankruptcy — only under exceedingly rare circumstances. That means they aren’t sold at steep discounts and remain out of our reach. What’s more, America’s mountain of student debt is too immense for the Jubilee to make a significant dent in it. Real change will require more organized actions like those taken by the Corinthian 15.

Its not surprising that they lost traction after the pivot. Buying discounted debt is a tactic which respects the logic of the market. Debt strikes go against the cultural norm of treating debt as a moral obligation.

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/opinion/a-strike-against-s...

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