I mean debtor prisons are basically just involuntary prison labor, which the US already has. Not really a leap, considering you can get arrested for legitimately anything.
If it’s high enough, and you don’t move to another state…
Collections sues you, you get a court summons in the mail.
You throw away the court summons along with all your overdue bill notices.
Congratulations, you now have an active arrest warrant, police will be at your location in… a few days to a few weeks, you go to jail, then likely prison for contempt of court, and when you get out, the debt collector won their judgement against you by default, any wages you try to get will be garnished, your credit score is absymal so you can’t get an apartment basically anywhere.
I mean, if we’re bringing back child labor, debtor’s prisons aren’t a huge leap.
I mean debtor prisons are basically just involuntary prison labor, which the US already has. Not really a leap, considering you can get arrested for legitimately anything.
Here’s how you go to jail for debt:
Rack up a ton of credit card debt.
Don’t pay it off, goes to collections.
If it’s high enough, and you don’t move to another state…
Collections sues you, you get a court summons in the mail.
You throw away the court summons along with all your overdue bill notices.
Congratulations, you now have an active arrest warrant, police will be at your location in… a few days to a few weeks, you go to jail, then likely prison for contempt of court, and when you get out, the debt collector won their judgement against you by default, any wages you try to get will be garnished, your credit score is absymal so you can’t get an apartment basically anywhere.
I mean, it kind of is.
Debtor’s prisons were never fair, but at least it usually involved adults who made their own choices.
Kids can’t legally consent to anything - though I’m sure the republicans want to change that too.
But then they could say no to child marriage and they wouldn’t want that