Consumer debt crunch and division by two

[Rakesh Bhandari]

In the Florentine woolen industry of the 17th century, the wage earner was
tied to his employer by debts and a whole set of laws was introduced in
order to compel him to do overtime. With our culture of minimal math
skills, many of us took on more and more consumer debt, even as the
interest rate rose from 7 to 15% and beyond. Now in order to hold back the
powers of compound interest, workers are finding themselves in no position
to look for better jobs, to fight cuts or intensifications. The consumer
debt crunch has not stabilized capitalism by propping up effective demand.
It surely has not sacrificed savings for consumption (as Harless and
Medoff bizzarely argue in The Indebted Society)--in order to pay off
that debt, workers are saving ever more of their income. What the consumer
debt crunch has done is induce the American proletariat to accept more
social degradation; capitalism has thusly been strengthened as it always
is by a higher rate of exploitation. 
best rakesh