David Graeber makes an excellent point in his book about debt that “people must always pay their debts” is shortsighted. If there is no mechanism for default, then lenders can get away with giving bad loans to people who can’t afford it, knowing no matter what, they will be forced to pay. When the borrower can default, the lender has to exercise discretion and can’t ruin people’s lives for marginal returns.
Also, we need to understand that the people who took on these debts - the rulers - and the people who are suffering from their national poverty, are not the same people. The IMF and World Bank pushed these debts on the rulers with the implication that they’d be able to live large by stealing a share of the money flowing in without having any personal obligation to pay it back, and with the further implication that if they didn’t accept these terms they might just be invaded.
Don’t be fooled by talk of what they owe. These people aren’t suffering because they failed some moral test. They are the victims of structural violence done by western governments.
Honestly they don’t even want the debts to be repaid, that’s the extra fucked up part. They’re poison pills, and repaying them would in effect purge the victim’s system and allow them to recover. The point is to cripple their economy and infrastructure and exploit their poverty to extract far more than the loans were ever worth.
David Graeber makes an excellent point in his book about debt that “people must always pay their debts” is shortsighted. If there is no mechanism for default, then lenders can get away with giving bad loans to people who can’t afford it, knowing no matter what, they will be forced to pay. When the borrower can default, the lender has to exercise discretion and can’t ruin people’s lives for marginal returns.
Also, we need to understand that the people who took on these debts - the rulers - and the people who are suffering from their national poverty, are not the same people. The IMF and World Bank pushed these debts on the rulers with the implication that they’d be able to live large by stealing a share of the money flowing in without having any personal obligation to pay it back, and with the further implication that if they didn’t accept these terms they might just be invaded.
Don’t be fooled by talk of what they owe. These people aren’t suffering because they failed some moral test. They are the victims of structural violence done by western governments.
IMF and World Bank are co-conspirators of robbing the citizens of poor nations with corrupt governance.
Repaying loans taken out by thieves would be rewarding their accomplices.
Strangely, there is no talk of holding bank execs accountable for their part in the theft.
Honestly they don’t even want the debts to be repaid, that’s the extra fucked up part. They’re poison pills, and repaying them would in effect purge the victim’s system and allow them to recover. The point is to cripple their economy and infrastructure and exploit their poverty to extract far more than the loans were ever worth.
Usury 101.
The plague of the world at many scales.