CMV: Governments should enact a true Jubilee for much of their internal debt, forgiving or vastly reducing it to better people's lives and banning harsh collection tactics.

Or you could end debt when people can't repay it.

The question is why. A loan for 200,000 over 30 years is very different from a loan for 200,000 over 5 years so pretending like there is "an amount of debt" independent from it's term doesn't make sense. In the example given the first debt is common (in the form of a mortgage) and something many families manage. The second debt is very burdensome. Under your system why would we strike the second debt rather than convert it into the first. If we consider the first debt to be OK why not take debts that are not OK and alter them such that they are.

I am also aware that they also can't legally seize members of your family- I was more concerned about the issue that if people have no money they can't maintain a car.

Then you declare bankruptcy. The tools for escaping overly burdensome debt while retaining a home, transportation, and enough property and income to live safely on, already exist. When people choose not to declare bankruptcy its because they believe they can service their debt without having to subject themselves to court ordered liquidations and payment schedules.

If you have to get to the point of bankrupcy then that means potentially years of stress, missed medical appointments due to poverty, risky driving in environmentally unfriendly cars.

Then your proposal should be to expand bankruptcy protections to make it easier for people to declare and expand exemptions to allow them to keep more stuff. A bankruptcy is an orderly unwinding of a persons assets and liabilities such that their creditors receive something while they are offered a chance to restart their lives. Why wipe the books when an organized restructuring could happen.

And hey, if you somehow have extremely high (dischargeable) debts but very very low income - a bankruptcy often functions very similar to your proposal.

/r/changemyview Thread Parent