In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I learned a lot about our relationship with property. More importantly, I witnessed the strength in community. I saw people banding together to help each other in any way they could.
I am sure that this collective contribution has done more for the recovery efforts than anything else.
In 2013, because of technology and connectivity, our local community has expanded exponentially. Through the Internet, we are easily connected to an infinite number of people and these people are part of our community. As part of the community, these people want to help their neighbors.
An organization called Rolling Jubilee is banking (no pun intended) on this community spirit to help people get out of debt.
Rolling Jubilee
Rolling Jubilee is a “project” that aims to buy debt from banks. Then, instead of collecting on that debt, Rolling Jubilee would completely abolish it.
This project operates on contributions from anyone willing to donate and so far has raised close to $500,000. These contributions are then used to purchase debt for pennies on the dollar, just like a collection agency would do.
The difference is that the purchased debt is never collected.
The money collected by the Rolling Jubilee project will be used to purchase distressed medical debt. In fact, this has already happened.
On November 12, 2012, Rolling Jubilee purchased $100,145.74 in medical debt for only $5,000.00. More can be read about the purchase on the Rolling Jubilee blog.
Can This Work?
As a bankruptcy lawyer, I have no love for unscrupulous debt collectors.
As I discussed with regard to the Zero Bound program, I am a huge fan of independent, creative solutions to our nation’s debt problems. It seems the Rolling Jubilee project is a win/win/win situation.
The bank’s debt gets purchased and the debtor’s debt is forgiven. In addition, the donations are tax deductible and go towards purchasing medical debt so there is a strong likelihood of ongoing contributions.
I do not see this project working with consumer debt as I do not think donors will find the cause “noble.”
Rolling Jubilee has announced that they plan more “debt buys” in the coming months. As I love the creativity of this project, I will continue to monitor this jubilee moving forward.
It will be interesting to see where this “party” goes.
Image courtesy of Moyan_Bren (Flickr).