“In Debt We Trust: America Before The Bubble Bursts,” Directed by Danny Schecter, DVD: distributed by Globalvision, Inc., 52 minutes. |
Events like Hurricane Katrina happen. Bankruptcy laws are passed that affect millions of people’s lives and many people don’t even realize it. So many people can’t get by day to day. They are living on credit cards that are easy to get and impossible to pay off. A lot more people are going to get into big trouble if we don’t make a change.
The movie shows people being cheated out of their houses by scam artists. It was terrible to see this. It made me angry to see people being victimized and unable to defend themselves against predators. I used to work in a real estate office and saw a lot of foreclosures. People had mortgages, credit cards and bank loans. They failed to see the link between those things and got in over their heads. That experience informs how I manage my own money today.
I felt very grateful watching “In Debt We Trust” because I don’t have that much debt. When I went to college I knew about the credit card companies. I knew that debt was something I didn’t need and that I had power as a consumer. The only debts I have are my school loans and I feel that those are necessary for my future.
Showing this movie might help people by giving them a chance to reflect on their own issues. It might also motivate people to get involved in helping to change things. Much of it was about the weak being taken advantage of by the strong—credit card companies, payday lenders, mortgage scam artists—all taking advantage of people who don’t know any better or who just want a better life. “In Debt We Trust” made me want to do more to stop them.
Karen Best
