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I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

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Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#11

Post by Mountain_Skies »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #9
motohagiography wrote: post #6

It would be interesting to run the numbers on a jubilee for certain kinds of debt. I realize monetary policy of inflation is in-effect a debt jubilee, as it was applied to the boomer generation in the 70s and 80s. Since diminishingly few people keep their savings in cash (instead of putting into homes, durable goods, index funds, etc), inflating away debt seems like an inevitable policy outcome. In the US, if the dem…

Have you wax economist Michael Hudson? One of his central theses is that we need debt forgiveness, as debt is piling up beyond the capacity for people to pay it. Debt grows exponentially, and it acts as a hindrance to the economy, while enriching the banking, finance and real estate sectors.

Debt forgiveness might be more palatable if it is accompanied by changes to the system that allowed an unsustainable amount of debt to be generated in the first place.

Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#12

Post by faissaloo »

malux85 wrote: post #7

I have a story similar to this. There was a profound moment in my career when I was working as a consultant for a company I wont name, but they were in Canary Wharf, which is the financial center of London, UK. I was in a glass high-rise building, and had been working there for about 4 weeks. The project I was working on was at heart, selling loans and credit to people who couldnt afford it - all hidden by opaque lan…

As someone who lives in one of those areas, thank you for doing the right thing.

Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#14

Post by faissaloo »

twblalock wrote: post #8

It's easy to call this kind of lending predatory, but when you leave the problem of poverty to private businesses to solve you end up with high-interest loans and payday loans. If the government banned this kind of lending and didn't provide an alternative, poor people would have no lending options. Regulating this kind of lending (e.g. by tightening the already regulated limits on interest rates) can only go so far…

In a world without interest the poor seldom need loans.

Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#15

Post by GoodJokes »

Simulacra wrote: post #10

Debt is just another business. So long as the poor keep paying on the debt, it makes business sense to keep pushing debt to them. It seems the idea is to squeeze the rock just to the point it bleeds, but not kill it.

[dead]

Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#16

Post by JansjoFromIkea »

malux85 wrote: post #7

I have a story similar to this. There was a profound moment in my career when I was working as a consultant for a company I wont name, but they were in Canary Wharf, which is the financial center of London, UK. I was in a glass high-rise building, and had been working there for about 4 weeks. The project I was working on was at heart, selling loans and credit to people who couldnt afford it - all hidden by opaque lan…

I spoke to a guy from there (probably the same company) before who said they were swept up by some kind of drive towards goals, no clue if it was financially incentivised or what but the impression I got was that the targets were sufficiently high pressure to distract them from the ethical issues of the core product? I imagine it's very easy to suppress workers feelings by the right balance of workload and above average pay until they've gotten used to that pay level and can't back out.

Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#17

Post by jacquesm »

malux85 wrote: post #7

I have a story similar to this. There was a profound moment in my career when I was working as a consultant for a company I wont name, but they were in Canary Wharf, which is the financial center of London, UK. I was in a glass high-rise building, and had been working there for about 4 weeks. The project I was working on was at heart, selling loans and credit to people who couldnt afford it - all hidden by opaque lan…

I have a similar one: A bank I once worked at - long since absorbed by other banks, a Dutch daughter company of Chase Manhattan - had an internal project specifically targeting people in mental institutions. These were typically fairly wealthy because they couldn't spend their money but were paid a monthly stipend by the government. All that money just sitting there was too much of a temptation and they made a special project around relieving those people of their funds.

Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#18

Post by xhkkffbf »

I hate to be cynical, but it's a bit rich to keep cashing the checks for five entire years and then having some come-to-Jesus moment. Did the change of heart go alongside some new boss who didn't like the work product? Or perhaps a plan to just move?

It's easy to dis something on the way out the door.

Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#19

Post by jdsully »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #11
Synaesthesia wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you wax economist Michael Hudson? One of his central theses is that we need debt forgiveness, as debt is piling up beyond the capacity for people to pay it. Debt grows exponentially, and it acts as a hindrance to the economy, while enriching the banking, finance and real estate sectors.

Debt forgiveness might be more palatable if it is accompanied by changes to the system that allowed an unsustainable amount of debt to be generated in the first place.

A recurring debt forgiveness schedule would do just that. If all debts expired after 10 years lenders would be much more cautious.

Re: I Worked at Capital One for 5 Years. How We Justified Piling Debt on the Poor

#20

Post by WalterBright »

twblalock wrote: post #8

It's easy to call this kind of lending predatory, but when you leave the problem of poverty to private businesses to solve you end up with high-interest loans and payday loans. If the government banned this kind of lending and didn't provide an alternative, poor people would have no lending options. Regulating this kind of lending (e.g. by tightening the already regulated limits on interest rates) can only go so far…

> poor people would have no lending options

Then they borrow from criminals, which historically provide services the government bans.

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