Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2021 20:22:42 +0000 (UTC)
From: M
Subject: Bankruptcy 101

INTRODUCTION. It should be obvious that the following is nothing but
fiction which has no literary value.  The people and situations depicted
exist only in the demented imagination of the author.  This story is a
history of the future.  Although the events are yet to happen, they are
related in the past tense by someone who will have lived them -- in other
words, this is complete fantasy.


CHAPTER 1 Some history


More and more labor was being done either by computerized robots or by
convict labor such that the unemployment rates for free low skilled and
unskilled workers sky rocketed.  That also meant that default rates on
loans and declarations of bankruptcy caused tremendous financial losses
for banks and other lending agencies.  Little by little, the laws were
changed in favor of lenders.  In olden times, bankruptcy protected
debtors by wiping out the debt of insolvent borrowers.  Eventually,
however, bankruptcy laws were amended to protect creditors.


Under early amendments, debtor jails were reinstated.  If someone was in
arrears of a loan, the creditor could have the debtor jailed until the
loan was paid.   The inmates of debt jails were a source of day labor.
Anyone who needed workers, especially construction and farm workers,
would go to the debtor jail, chose among the available stock.  Debtors
were always displayed nude so they could be examined to determine if they
were physically fit for the work they were being chosen for.  When the
leased debtor was handed to an employer, they were dressed in striped
jump suits that were closed with Velcro so they could be removed quickly
in the event punishment was necessary.  Wages for debt labor were a
fraction of what a free worker would be paid and the debtor could be
worked non-stop for as many hours as the employer demanded.  During
harvest or planting season, for example, debtors could be seen seen
working in the fields around the clock for a much as a week at a time
with not so much as an hour's sleep.  A small portion of the "wages"
were paid to the creditor and the remaining portion was kept by the
county to cover "administrative costs."  As a result, debtors remained
in jails working off their debts for months, sometimes years, at a time.
Nothing, of course, was paid to the debtor.  When the debtor was returned
to the jail, they could sleep unless another employer had plans for
them.  Most of the time, those debtors who were not rented to private
individuals, farms or factories were worked by the county to maintain
roads, parks, and public buildings.  In the winter debtors were used to
shovel snow from streets and sidewalks -- in most places, cities would
brag that all sidewalks had been cleared of snow within half a day of a
storm.  Whether it was the county or private individuals who were working
the debtor, any amount of force was considered appropriate to extract
maximum labor at minimal cost.


If a debtor was lucky enough to know someone who pay off the debt, the
debtor would be released from the jail.  That seldom happened without an
enforceable agreement to work off the debt for the new creditor -- As
expected, fewer free men could find work and the population of the debtor
jails increased which caused increased administrative costs for county
governments.


Likewise, during this time various research universities devised  social
experiments to consider the effects of total slavery on the participants
as well as society as a whole.  Some of those experiments have been
chronicled in stories.  In one story, a guy named Jason agreed to become
a slave in order to attend college.  A couple new pieces of information
have recently come to light which makes the story a bit more
interesting.  For example, during the period when Jason was was still
living at home, his mother had cooked his favorite dinner and the entire
family was gathered to launch Jason on to his new life.  Just as they sat
down to eat, his future master phoned.  As soon as Jason saw it was his
new master on the phone, he immediately stood up, as he had previously
been instructed to do.  Jason told his new master that he was just about
to begin eating with his family.  Master said:  "That's too bad.  I
just told my father and brother that you're going to be my slave and
they want to have a look at you, so get your ass over here now."  Jason
had to leave the table without tasing even a mouthful of his mother's
dinner.  When Jason got to his master's house, he was told to stand in
the middle of the living room while the family discussed him.  After he
was told to get naked, he was inspected first by Cameron's father and
then his little brother.  At some point, little brother was reminded that
he hadn't cleaned up the kitchen after supper.  Little brother said,
"why should I do that, we've got a slave standing here, aren't slaves
suppose to do the work."   Jason was told to get busy cleaning the
dishes and scrubbing the kitchen floor.  When he was finished, it was
time for little brother to go to bed.  Little brother asked if he
couldn't have the slave give him a bath before he went to bed.  After
Jason bathed and dried little brother, and of course, sucked him off, he
returned to the living room where he was given a list of chores to do
while the family was sleeping.  The next day, Jason spent the morning
mowing the grass, washing the car, cleaning out the garage, and anything
else that he was told to do.


Finally, the government determined that just as the Constitution allowed
for slavery as punishment for crime, so to it was allowed for failure to
pay debts.  Instead of debtors being leased to employers, they could now
be sold and owned in perpetuity, and be used for any purpose at the sole
discretion of the owner.  When a debtor became six months in arrears of
one or more debts, the creditor(s) could petition the bankruptcy court to
have the debtor declared insolvent.  The debtor was then given a period
of time - usually six weeks in most states -- to pay the debt in full.
Upon failure to pay in full, the debtor, his family, and all other
property were seized by bankruptcy marshals and sold at public auction.


When a debtor and family were arrested by the marshal, they would be
taken to a facility that became known as the pens.  The family was
immediately stripped of all clothing and forced into an outdoor viewing
area where potential buyers could examine them.  Each new slave was
assigned a "buy now" price, and a time to be auctioned.  The buy now
price was fixed by experts who determined the price an item would sell
for at auction.  More often than not, they were pretty close, but if a
potential buyer waited for auction, it was possible the slave would sell
for less than market value.  On the other hand, it was possible that
bidding on a slave would result in a much higher price than what had been
estimated.  Therefore, if a buyer had his eye on a particular slave, the
buy now option was usually a good choice.  Generally the period of time
between arrest and auction was less than 24 hours.


TO BE CONTINUED