Rolling Jubilee Eliminates Nearly $15 Million Of American Debt

In just one year, the Rolling Jubilee has eliminated nearly $15 million dollars of American debt. The Occupy Wall Street's Strike Debt movement has spent $400,000 to purchase old debts, and simply abolished it, to free people from their back-due bills. The movement started back in November of 2012, when the group started raising money to purchase old medical debts, and issued letters to individuals saying that those bills would no longer haunt them. Originally, Strike Debt hoped to buy debt cheaply enough to get a 20 to 1 return – writing off $1 million dollars of debt for every $50,000 that they spent. However, they've been able to buy debt more cheaply than expected, and abolish more than 37 times the amount that they purchased. Outside of helping individuals, the original purpose of Strike Debt was to raise awareness of the predatory secondary debt market, and highlight how many people are suffering under the weight of past medical bills. What they have done is nothing short of heroic, and hopefully they'll continue this important fight.