Dignity Not Debt

Chrystin delivered a passionate, eye-opening talk, followed by a Q&A, on American household debt from her new book ‘Dignity Not Debt: An Abolitionist Approach to Economic Justice’, published with University of California Press.

Chaired by Professor Lorenza Antonucci, in her talk Chrystin declared that 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 and creates a system that ends up damaging debt users. In this talk and conversation with Dr Joy Malala, University of Warwick, Chrystin debunked 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. In place of these stale narratives, Chrystin offers a flexible and reality-based taxonomy rooted in the internationally recognized principle of human dignity.

The taxonomy as alternative to the present notion that if you just take on “good debt” and avoid “bad debt” you’ll be financially secure, and focuses instead on three types of debt: survival debt, opportunity debt, and extractive debt.

Chrystin discussed the distinction between debt that benefits the individual – such as opportunity debt - and debt that benefits corporations and harm the borrowers – such as extractive debt, while also highlighting the risk of using “survival debt” (debt that households incur to survive and achieve a standard of living consistent with human dignity). The conversation discussed how policy-makers can move towards a use of the debt that benefits individuals and aims to uphold human dignity both in the US and elsewhere. Once again, CHASM thanks Chrystin for her visit and we look forward to working with her again.