My Name Is?

Allow me to introduce myself, I am A.N. Other, the Mr Nice of the easy-credit era.

Like many people in Britain today, I was raised on a diet of debt. Right from my early student days, when overdrafts, loans and credit cards were first foisted upon me, indebtedness was a constant feature of my young adulthood.

In the ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ culture of the easy credit era, the aggressive marketing of credit and the twisted psychology of debt represented a lethal force that combined so effectively to ensnare people in the debt trap. As a consequence, a whole generation of young Britons now find their lives blighted by indebtedness, and are now struggling with their liabilities.

I was one of these people. Young and foolish, I lived above my means and over-committed myself. What began as a modest liability quickly became a tight noose around my neck. With the demands of the minimum payment dragging me down, I was eventually forced to confront the size of my deficit.

 

Which way to turn?

I’d woken up to my situation and stopped spending, but what next?

Naturally I did my sums, calculating how many years it’d take to pay everything off.  Facing a bleak future, one where my dreams and aspirations would have to be forsaken whilst I remained in servitude to the money lenders, I was consumed by the same debt angst that is familiar to so many. Endless days and sleepless nights were spent turning the debt conundrum over in my mind, desperately searching for a solution, hitting dead-end after dead-end. My predicament was made even more acute by the fact that I had reached a stage in my life where I had begun to think about how best to live, and what constituted a good life. I wanted to change the way I lived but debt was preventing me from doing so.

I encountered a lot of personal stories whilst searching for the answer. Most just accepted their fate and chose to struggle on, some elected to pack their backs and elope, leaving their lives behind to start anew in a foreign land. Unfortunately, there were a handful of who opted for a very final solution – choosing to leave a rucksack full of bills beside the train tracks.

 

Revolt

Faced with a choice between spending my best years in thrall to the banks, or regaining my freedom in a matter of months, I opted for an extreme solution. The streamlined insolvency laws in Britain meant that I would be free from bankruptcy in less than a year. With no assets, I realised I was an ideal candidate for Quick-Fix-Bankruptcy. I could wipe the slate clean and take my life back immediately.

As I stood in the line of soon to be bankrupt debtors at the courthouse, the thought of the banks having to write off my debts provided me with great comfort. There’s a lot more to this story, all of which I’ve documented elsewhere. Looking back on it now, having spent these last couple of years living what I consider to be a more authentic existence, I can hardly believe any of it happened at all.

This is not only my story, it is the reality for thousands of young Britons and Americans lured into the debt trap under the auspices of savage liberalism. Whatever you think about the morality of my tale and the wider debt issue, and it is certainly an engrossing debate, this disease we call debt is afflicting an entire generation.

 

A.N. Other

Enemy of the Profit Margin