An earth-shaking reimagining of household debt that opens up a new
path to financial security for all Americans.
American
households have a debt problem. The problem is not, as often claimed,
that Americans recklessly take on too much debt. The problem is that
US debt policies have no basis in reality. Weaving together the
histories and trends of US debt policy with her own family story,
Chrystin Ondersma debunks the myths that have long governed debt
policy, like the belief that debt leads to prosperity or the claim
that bad debt is the result of bad choices, both of which nest in the
overarching myth of a free market unhindered by government
interference and accessible to all.
In
place of these stale narratives, Ondersma offers a compelling,
flexible, and reality-based taxonomy rooted in the internationally
recognized principle of human dignity. Ondersma's new categories of
debt--grounded in abolitionist principles--revolutionize how
policymakers are able to think about debt, which will in turn
revolutionize the American debt landscape itself.