Evil Master Plan: DEBT RELIEF IF YOU ENLIST?

[yodermon]

Here is my idea. What if all this massive consumer debt will be exploited as an incentive for enlistment?

Scenario: China pegs to Euro. Economy nosedives. High interest rates. Hyperinflation. CREDITORS START TO CALL in all the MASSIVE consumer debt.

MEANWHILE, shrubco bombs Iran. They need a draft, but they can't call it a draft for propogandistic reasons. So Uncle Sam swoops in and says "Debt relief for you & yours, if you enlist. What a great incentive!".

It's not mandatory conscription, but it would be the only way out for a lot of people.

Is it immoral? Of course. Is it serfdom at best, enslavement at worst? Most certainly. But my question to the minds of DU: IS IT FEASIBLE?

IOW, please punch holes in this idea and tell my why it wouldn't work.
The bankruptcy bill timing is a little too suspicious for me.

PLEASE TELL ME WE ARE NOT HEADED FOR A DEBTOR'S ARMY.

[RBHam]

1. Not to mention: a way to relieve overcrowded prisons

think about it

[neuvocat]

5. Very true.

[whistle]

2. No debtor's army coming, debtor prisons similar to HLS.....

...detension centers where you're held without a trial or an attorney, then in prison they pick the worst of the worst and enlist them into special black operations forces, giving them debt relief. That should give you a good start on the next best seller fiction adventure novel....:rofl:

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. A friend had to leave college and enlist when Reagan cut the Pell Grants

So yes, there is precedent, why not use something like this as a trigger (no pun intended).

[neuvocat]

4. I'm afraid we already have one.

[democracyindanger]

6. Banks and credit card companies have been pushing this

for 8 years, so the effort was well underway before Chimpy got in. And when you say debt relief, what form do you think it will take? The gubmint using tax dollars to pay off debts, or a law enacted that makes creditors forgive debts?

Also consider that even the greatest incentive for the most desperate--citizenship for foreigners--isn't much of an incentive anymore:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/04/14/national/a122612D92.DTL

Military Recruiting Slips Among Foreigners

The number of foreign nationals enlisting in the U.S. military is dropping, even though service now provides a fast track to American citizenship, an Associated Press review of military data shows.

The decrease in non-citizen enlistees, who hail from countries such as the Philippines, Mexico, Nigeria and Germany, has hit all branches of the armed services, which already are struggling with recruitment as the U.S. presence in Iraq enters year three.
...
The decline surprises immigration and military experts, who expected that green-card holders who might otherwise wait years to become Americans would jump at the citizenship offer President Bush extended nearly three years ago.

Instead, the annual number of non-citizen enlistees has fallen nearly 20 percent from fiscal year 2001 — the last full year before the changes — to fiscal year 2004, according to military data. Much of the decline, from 11,829 to 9,477 recruits, came last year alone.

What you suggest isn't impossible--we can't put anything past the criminals--but I don't think the bankruptcy bill is indicative of a greater plan.

[ChickMagic]

7. I've thought about that too

The creditor sells the debt to the feds and you become an indentured servant in the army until you've paid the debt off. Since you'd earn slave wages, you'd be in the army a looonnng time.