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Can't Pay, Won't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition

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With debt cancellation emerging as both a key area of debate in the Democratic primary and a catalyst of youth radicalization, an expanding readership is eager for a fuller left-wing perspective on the history and function of debt in our society, as well as a road map for how to challenge it. This concise, energetic manifesto from the Debt Collective is in equal parts informative and inspiring, and is sure to become a crucial reference point for activists and debt cancellation campaigners. Includes a foreword from Debt Collective co-founder and acclaimed activist-author, documentarian, and musician Astra Taylor.

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First published September 29, 2020

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Debt Collective

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
Profile Image for Bakari.
Author 2 books43 followers
December 30, 2020
Note: At the time of this review, Haymarket, the publisher of this book, is providing afree ebook downloadof the book. If you can afford to pay for it, definitely purchase it to support the publishing.

Whether or not you’re in debt, you should read this seriously important book. In the era of financialisation (or what Marx called the finance stage of capitalism), debt plays a huge impact on entire economies, individuals and families.

This book explains the role of debt and how it has historically been used, but also more importantly it explains why ordinary people should come together and force governments to cancel debts, and ultimately demand a political economy that doesn’t put people in debt.

“Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay” is very current and timely book, covering what has taken place in the era of COVID. The book makes even sense to me, because I read Stephanie Kelton’s book, The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy in which she explains how because the U.S. has a sovereign currency, it can’t really have a deficit—as long as it’s producing enough goods and services for cash flow. The US could forgive all student loans and free up money for important spending, such as housing, raising children, and transitioning to a green economy. (The US government through the treasury and banks issues digital and paper currency into the economy. It can create and issue as much as money it wants and needs. It does not depend upon the taxes. Taxes are the money that government reigns back in.)

Because we’re in the era of fascism, the working class is going to have to find ways to undermine the economy of the ruling class which keeps most people in debt and struggling. Protests in the streets are important, but we need to also learn and use the power of economic boycotts, debtors’ unions, job strikes, and other forms of resistance to force the government to make changes.

The book says it best:
Through strategic campaigns of economic disobedience and debt refusal, we can help repair past damage, rescue our planet, and repossess our lives. By resisting together, we reclaim all that has been stolen. Alone, our debts are a burden; together they can make us powerful. We owe it to one another to fight back.


“Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay” is easy to read, but it’s packed with a lot of information. It’s a book that should be widely read and studied in groups and classrooms. It’s a manifesto for a debt jubilee.
Profile Image for Catherine.
175 reviews
July 19, 2023
3.5
The best chapter was chapter 4. I'd give that one five stars.
Profile Image for JRT.
189 reviews67 followers
December 22, 2020
This book is essentially a manifesto for debt abolition and debtor organizing. The Debt Collective makes a convincing case for debtors unions--organized around a collective refusal to pay debts and grease the wheels of financial capitalism. The books makes a strong case for refusing to pay debts that are "unjust" (i.e., debts that people are forced to incur in order to satisfy basic needs because the neoliberal economic order has privatized and commodified such needs). Instead, the Debt Collective argues that we (debtors around the world) should only focus on "just debt," the type of debts that repair systemic oppression.

The Debt Collective identifies debt as a form of social control, and situates debt as the underlying instrument in virtually every single oppressive system over the last few centuries (enslavement, land dispossession / settler colonialism, neo-colonialism, austerity, predatory inclusion, etc.). The book makes a compelling case for debtors in America and around the world (especially in the Global South) to band together and collectively refuse to satisfy debts to multi-national corporate entities only concerned with extreme extraction and profit maximization. The goal of "debt abolition" is to weaken and dismantle global capitalism and usher in a more egalitarian form of socioeconomic governance.

While this books is extremely clear on its desired path, it could have added a bit more on the consequences for such collective resistance to debt repayment, as well as ways in which such consequences can be mitigated. Nevertheless, debt abolition is a noble goal and must be prioritized along with the other forms of abolition that radicals identify as necessary to dismantling this white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal social order.
Profile Image for Kevin Kelsey.
429 reviews2,271 followers
March 20, 2023
Fantastic primer on predatory lending, and the collective power that debtors have if they organize. I’m very interested in the work that The Debt Collective is doing to create a more equitable world for future generations.
Profile Image for Nancy.
Author 8 books121 followers
April 19, 2021
Great short primer on debt resistance.

"No one should have to go into debt to meet their basic needs."

"Most people are not in debt because they live beyond their means; they are in debt because they have been denied the means to live."
Profile Image for Ietrio.
6,704 reviews25 followers
September 24, 2020
The kids in the street have Unionized. Now they are throwing a tantrum: won't pay. They are still taking the carrots from McGregor's garden, but they won't pay.
Profile Image for Guchu.
206 reviews5 followers
August 22, 2022
A very compelling case for collectivised household debt disobedience. Taking debt to be able to live and paying punitive interest rates and not accessing certain basic services when unable to make repayments is deplorable and continues to enable the state's divestment from public services to benefit private capital.

This is a call to push for the abolition of it all, formation of debt unions that refuse to pay unjust debt and a cry for investment in what humanity needs: free and quality healthcare, education, housing etc.

I have so many thoughts that I will write later (possibly, lol). I loved it!
Profile Image for Matthew Laidler.
23 reviews
February 11, 2021
An excellent short book that is great to read as a follow up to David Graeber’s ‘Debt: The First 5,000 Years’.

It is almost impossible to avoid debt for a lot of people (and even a lot of countries) in today’s world. In many cases this is not because the debtor has done something wrong or irresponsible, it is often because they have pursued a higher education or gotten sick or (in the case of countries) dared to seek independence from their imperial masters. With less regulation and the rich becoming richer as a result, the odds are being stacked higher and higher in favour of the creditors. Now even data harvesting from social media is being used to trap people in debt cycles.

The Debt Collective propose debt unions which allow debtors to come together and use their collective debt as leverage against the system which is stacked against them by refusing to pay. As the J. Paul Getty quotes goes “If you owe the bank $100,000, the bank owns you. If you owe the bank $100 million, you own the bank”. Using this logic, debtors as a collective can own the bank, they just need to realise their power and organise.

The book gives detailed explanations of where we stand, what we can do about it and how we can do it.
Profile Image for Nick DeFiesta.
141 reviews22 followers
November 16, 2020
I didn't know much, if anything, about debt and debt abolition. This book changed that. Abolish debt now.
Profile Image for Brody Seaton.
22 reviews2 followers
July 27, 2021
“Most people are not in debt because they live beyond their means; they are in debt because they have been denied the means to live.”
Profile Image for Lena.
21 reviews2 followers
March 18, 2024
excellent, digestible read on the case for debtors’ unions and how it could transform our world & help us fight for the future we want
Profile Image for Arin Goswami.
279 reviews12 followers
July 3, 2021
Great resource outlining how people can organize to form a debtor's union. Especially relevant for anybody that has student loans outstanding.
Profile Image for Brennen Peterson.
149 reviews5 followers
June 28, 2023
GOD DAMN, this goes hard. Debt can be such a useful tool, but the good kind of debt isn’t available to most people often enough. Investors, businesses, “entrepreneurs” and other capital owners can use debt to generate great wealth. For everyone else it is just a predatory aspect of the current uber-capitalist system we have. Nobody should be going into unwanted debt because of medical, educational, housing, or imprisonment reasons.

The creation of the credit score is one of the most harmful things American economics has created. The book explains exactly how greedy the Financial and Technology sectors really are. Some terrifying stuff. It’s arguably more important to ones well being to truly understand our current financial environment and how to not get fucked, than anything else discussed today in modern politics.

With the Supreme Courts ruling on Student Debt forgiveness coming within the next week, the Biden Administration resuming Student loan interest starting 60 days after that, and Student loan payments starting back in October, people with student loan debt have an opportunity to hold the economy hostage and force Congress to do something about so much of people’s predatory, unnecessary debt.
Profile Image for Amanda.
400 reviews12 followers
March 28, 2021
A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from the Democratic Socialists of America announcing some January events. One that caught my eye was a reading discussion about a recent book by The Debt Collective called Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition. As a person with a mountain of student loan debt, this is a topic I very much care about, so I decided to read the book right away. I got the audiobook version, and at only four hours in length, it was a quick listen.

Summary

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay dives into the various kinds of debt we have in our society, not just as individuals, but also as nations. The Debt Collective outlines where debt comes from and why it’s so hard to climb out of. They also examine the morality of debt, how it’s used to control people, and how it impacts generation after generation. Beyond the crippling effects of debt on individuals and families, we also see how debt is a pervasive issue that affects entire countries that owe money to other nations. However, the book doesn’t just look backwards; it also looks forward, identifying different tactics we can use to eliminate debt and regain our own power. It’s a short but dense book, offering numerous examples of financial exploitation and initiative, both on the micro and macro levels.

Review

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay is an eye-opening book with a wealth of knowledge. (See what I did there? Pun intended.) Beyond student loan debt (which is an issue that directly affects my sister and me, and is a subject I’m passionate about), this book also examines other kinds of debt, such as medical debt and the debt nations owe to other nations. It goes over the parts many of us know so well: Why it’s so easy and, in many ways, necessary for people to go into debt in the first place; why loans are extremely predatory; why it’s so difficult to get out of debt; how the cycle of poverty entraps people; why we need to abolish debt. But then Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay dives into the history and impacts I wasn’t aware of.

A major takeaway for me is how debt is used to control people. It’s used as power over others, particularly poor people and minorities. This can occur on the small scale; for example, it’s something I’ve seen within my family when one person owes money to another person. Of course, it also occurs on the large scale, from punishment through seizure of commodities or imprisonment to the simple debt cycle that keeps people desperate. I’d never seen it explained like this, but it was a lightbulb moment for me. My debt does control me and is a form of power over me.

Another key takeaway is how the lenders want us to be in debt and dependent. One example is about Ford employees in the 1900s. Apparently, employees were required to have certain “lifestyles,” and if they didn’t, they were encouraged to adopt those lifestyles or risk termination. Ford employees were expected to take out a mortgage to buy a home (not rent), have a stay-at-home wife, and not have any other income (whether from the wife having a job or from subletters). Essentially, Ford wanted their employees financially dependent and thus more loyal to the company.

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay also examines national debts, citing Greece as an example of a country that’s stuck in a cycle of debt. Or consider countries in Africa who are thought to owe money to the global north. These decades- and centuries-old debts play a large role in keeping some nations third-world countries and unable to rise up.

I appreciate the many examples Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay shares, and the depth of the information it provides. However, I do wish there was more attention on the solutions to these problems. The final chapter does cite what the movement has accomplished so far, and offers some tactics we can use to make further progress. But I felt it could have been more fully explained. As it stands, I feel that I’d still need more information about how I can take action. Debt strikes sounds good in theory, but it’s not something I’d feel secure in doing on my own or even as part of a small group. How can we finally get organized on a greater scale? How can we protect ourselves financially? I still have questions, but this book gets the ball rolling and is a great first step.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I found Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition to be a very informational and impactful book. I wish it had gone a bit further, but it’s still something I would encourage anyone with debt (or with loved ones who carry debt) to read. If we all work together, we can see real solutions enacted.

* Please check out my full review on my blog, Amanda's Book Corner! *
147 reviews
April 23, 2021
This tiny book presents a good overview of how governments and finance collaborated to create the debt crisis, and how it produces revolving-door debt circumstances for individuals and less-powerful governments. Chapter 2 is especially good.

That said, I find this book a little light on the details when it comes to organizing around debt abolition. It's a thorny practical problem on an individual level. Refusing to pay debt can absolutely rip up your life in the short term; your unwillingness to pay can lead to garnished wages, denial of housing, and so on. So many folks still have a lot to lose in the short term. And, as the book stresses, debt abolition without a radical restructuring of multiple social systems--water and power, work, housing, education, incarceration, medicine--will be incomplete, and debt would begin to accumulate again immediately. So comprehensive debt relief won't happen overnight, meaning that debt abolitionists will be in riskier positions for a longer period of time.

Across the battlefield, debt holders are negotiating from a significant position of power. They already have a lot of money and a government willing to bail them out, so they can afford to be patient. They influence and write local, state, and federal legislation around debt. They have nothing to gain from giving in to debtors' demands for *blanket* forgiveness: if they forgive debt, they lose money, but if they do not forgive debt, they lose less money.

It's also difficult to organize around debt abolition on an individual level in terms of finding others with the same obligations, something the book recognizes, but does not address. This is not a how-to guide, in part because the Debt Collective wants you to join their pre-existing efforts. But an explanation of how they organize would make the book more persuasive that they can get the goods.

Second, the book doesn't have much to offer in terms of absolute, concrete success stories. Greece and Bolivia fought against the debt crunch, but Greece capitulated (for reasons the book understands, to protect its elderly population from death), and Bolivia has struggled to get itself out from under the thumb of the United States. Now, the situation would be different in the United States, because if the debtors won, there wouldn't be a second United States around to overthrow their government. But it would still be helpful to see a political plan built around gaming your opponents' likely actions.

Elsewhere, the book highlights some of the temporary debt relief efforts during the pandemic, suggesting that it would be simple to make them permanent. But that partial view neglects the political and economic calculation of that relief, where creditors accept some money later in place of no money forever. Where the book is able to offer concrete victories is around so-called half-measures: forgiveness of some portion of debt, reduced interest rates: the same kinds of gains you might see in labor organizing, where a company is forced to choose between reduced profits and no profits at all. It's hard to piece together how those bargains, which keep people on the debt treadmill, will lead to a necessary restructuring of society. These problems may be surmountable, but the Debt Collective does not address the nuts and bolts of them in this book. That may be asking too much of it, I'm not sure.
Profile Image for Chris Boutté.
Author 7 books204 followers
June 6, 2022
This was such a fantastic book because it hits you with one of those, “Oh my God. You’re right,” moments as soon as you realize what Taylor is talking about. I honestly haven’t had a moment like that since I first discovered Bernie Sanders and his policy ideas and said, “Yeah. Why is healthcare directly tied to our employment?”. Astra Taylor and her organization argue that we should abolish debt and lays out a multitude of reasons why that is. The current system is set up for debt to accumulate while the rich get richer and wealth inequality gets even worse in our country.

Whenever I hear the word “abolish”, I instantly think the opinions are going to be way too extreme, but Astra Taylor makes an extremely strong argument. She explains how all of these rich corporations have their debt forgiven regularly, but for some reason, we common folk are seen as “irresponsible”. Meanwhile Wall Street is recklessly gambling with the economy, and Taylor even explains how the lack of accountability for these companies has led to contaminated water and health issues for communities.

I still don’t know if I’m on board with eliminating all debt, but I’m a firm believer in fighting for the extreme so we can maybe compromise by getting something reasonable. At the very least, the average American should get the same perks and benefits as these multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires who regularly have their debt forgiven while the rest of us struggle to get by.
Profile Image for Dan.
295 reviews22 followers
June 21, 2022
Shrill, histrionic, and at times, patently absurd. It's not enough that college should be free; land-grant universities should compensate the Native Americans whose land they occupy. There is a case to be made for debt forgiveness, but not by these clowns. Much of the opening chapters appears to be a gloss of David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...). The last part of the book is a state-of-the-union-esque laundry list of liberal causes. This is a trait shared, to a lesser-extent by two like-minded books: Money From Nothing: Or, Why We Should Stop Worrying About Debt and Learn to Love the Federal Reserve (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...) by Robert Hockett and Aaron James, and The Deficit Myth, by Stephanie Kelton. While those two books are erudite and well-argued, "Can't Pay, Won't Pay," is a screed high on petulance, but low on reason.
Profile Image for Mason Wyss.
43 reviews1 follower
June 5, 2022
I largely agree with the goals of this book. We need to build socialism if we want to survive the coming crises. However, a question is raised by Astra Taylor in the forward that goes unanswered and lingers in the background for the entire book, namely how do we build debtors unions when people who have the same lender are often separated by great distances? This is central to their project and is seemingly insurmountable if the strategy is to build a new type of union based solely on debt. What allows labor unions and tenant unions to organize is that the members live and work in close proximity to each other; they see each other and talk all the time and locals can meet in person to socialize and strategize. This leads me to believe that unless debtors unions are reworked to be caucuses in existing labor and tenant unions that campaign to participate in debt strikes, then the idea of a debtors union is doomed to fail.
Profile Image for Karen Kohoutek.
Author 10 books21 followers
November 9, 2020
Decent introduction to debt abolition, and the idea that shared debt can be used as leverage against creditors (student loans, major banks, etc). This is a new way of thinking about things, and that's valuable. The authors, a group that's been involved in these campaigns, has had some successes, so that's also inspiring. It contains an overview on concepts like financialization, and a decent introduction to the history of neoliberalism, and examples from the global struggle. I found the focus was more on brainstorming, in a way, about what's possible, versus what's practically doable, and the tone almost seemed kind of utopian at times. Maybe I just don't know enough about the subject, and/or am too cynical to see this working on a large scale. Still, it's a starting point for me to start learning about these subjects.
Profile Image for Kas.
4 reviews
September 3, 2023
It's propaganda. Red manifesto. At least they somehow notice how f*cked up system they created. How much trillions USA is in dept to their own banks, or China? But of course you would need to find other book that explores the subject, certainly you won't find nothing about in this one. Those f*ckers love racial divide, divide and conquer, but make no mistake it's a class war, always was. Those idiots just couldn't help themselves throwing Trump in there. I didn't know he went bankrupt over casino business, they called him an idiot as casino never loses. But in reality, I got new respect for a guy, maybe casino doesn't always win if it's not run by a mafia. You will like this book if you don't know how PR and agents of change work. The problems are there, but absolutely not even one inch is directed towards and is relevant to the clowns that are culprits.
Profile Image for Melissa.
1 review
March 14, 2024
"When people held a debt together, they were said to hold it in solidum. In other words, the state of being on the hook as a group was the basis of solidarity. If one individual faltered, the group had to step up -- meaning that its members would be either bailing one another out or defaulting together. Thus, from its genesis, solidarity had a financial component that raised the stakes."

Excellent background on how debt is a tool of capitalism, how we got here as individuals (through intergenerational debt) and collectively (indebted municipalities and countries). International solidarity in the face of climate collapse, pandemics, colonialism requires a commitment to debt abolition and mass movement building.

"Since our obligations to one another are infinite, putting price tags on them is an act of violence...By resisting together, we reclaim all that has been stolen."
Profile Image for Bill Reynolds.
82 reviews9 followers
May 29, 2022
I don't know who this is aimed at. Anyone likely to read it, in debt or not, already knows everything in it. I knew everything in it, and was hoping for something more theoretical, along the lines of economist Michael Hudson's writings on debt. The people who need to read it, because they don't know this stuff already, won't read it because it looks "Commie".

Another complaint is that it is long on "we have to do this", "we should pass this legislation", "we should be doing this" and short on the details as to how.

Finally, it was written before it became clear that QAnon had taken over the conservative movement, and that any mass mobilization will not be against bankers but will be against perceived Satanic pedophiles, because that is the country that we live in now.
1 review
Read
November 20, 2020
Great resource and cause. Am concerned about call for rent forgiveness and debt to businesses. I believe the govt.should allocate funds for this.There are many landlords who depend on rental income. I’m retired, age 84, on SocialSecurity with some savings for nursing home. Because of lack of safe investments at my age, I invested in small rental condo. The rent is an important part of my income. I reduced the rent when tenant was only partially employed. A major solution to many problems would be a universal basic income for all below living wage/income. I haven’t heard this being discussed except by Andrew Yang.
Profile Image for Rich.
756 reviews2 followers
May 9, 2022
I'm down for the debt strike. There's so much good information in this brief book that it's hard to summarize but it talks about the history of debt, how debt is used as a weapon, and why not paying your debt as an individual is a losing battle... but not paying your debt as a collective is a strategy. I'm paraphrasing, but one of the main things I got was "if you owe the bank 100,000 they own you... if you owe them 100 million, you own the bank" - the way we've saddled poor countries (and poor individuals) with debt to benefit a small percentage of countries, corporations, and billionaires is obscene.
Profile Image for Steph Sorensen.
109 reviews2 followers
June 8, 2022
“Under today’s conditions, declining to pay back debts is a defensible act of civil disobedience. We call it economic disobedience. For those aiming to make a more just society, cultivating such acts of collective refusal may amount to a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative.”

I loved this book. It’s short (4.5 hour audiobook), easy to understand, and makes connections across many spheres of justice work, like abolition and municipal debt. It also includes specific calls to action and strategies to organize to solve the problems it describes, which I have found to be unfortunately rare in ‘political’ books.

Can’t recommend enough.
Profile Image for John.
209 reviews2 followers
October 4, 2020
I want to like this book more. It does a devastatingly good job of laying out the roots and current status of the predatory “financialization” that has wildly increased predatory lending. But it needs more on the details of the (successful!) effort to get relief from the school debts associated with a predatory for-profit university and (tho it does note the key role mortgages played in building a white middle class in America) it needs more on how to maintain the desirable aspects of credit and lending.
54 reviews
June 13, 2022
Excellent, deep dive while quick read analysis on the history of debt nationally and transnationally, and the global collective power possible if debtors organize unions like workers have, to advocate for reparative and regenerative public goods owed to us. Learned from this book that word solidarity comes from 'debts we hold in common' and relates to the social contract that is possible when we organize, in a cross-issue movement that could advocate for free and fully funded public education, healthcare, climate reparations, and more, with debt as a core unifying factor.
Shelved as 'listened-to'
January 6, 2023
I think of debt as a tool, and that there can be good debt. I think Capitalism is far from a meritocracy, but it is the closest we've gotten. America's high debt load is a side effect of economic inequality caused in large part by generational wealth.

The book is an interesting look into the uppermiddleclass mind who feels oppressed. I say this because they didn't acknowledge that experts thought student loan forgiveness was a nonstarter due to the money going toward the rich side of the spectrum.
Profile Image for Deena Newaz.
5 reviews
January 8, 2023
An excellent book to start the year with which is a call to mobilize and organise against financialization. The book exposes how indebtedness is a lived experience upon which solidarity can be built, and how defaulting on exploitative lending organisations is a nonviolent weapon we all have access to to change social structures and claim what has been stolen from us and our ancestors by financial institutions.
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