2. The Philosophy: Why You Have the Moral High Ground

 Debt:

So you're in debt.  Why is that?  Well there are a lot of reasons we take on debt, you know why better than anyone.  The point is that collection agencies don't care.  Whether you've had medical expenses, were on vacation and hurt yourself, had to pay to save the life of a loved one and had no option other than your credit card, you'll be treated exactly the same as someone who willing and fraudulently opened a credit account with no intention to repay it. 

No Morality Whatsoever:

Here's the thing: a credit collection agency treat all debt the same.  They do not discriminate based on why you're in debt and WILL chase down a 90 year old grandmother for using her visa to buy heart medicine that saved her life but couldnt repay it because she is on a fixed income. As debtors, you cannot allow an organization like that to assume any type of moral high ground.  They will try, they'll call you a dead-beat, and irresponsible scum bag and a variety of other terms to try and convince you that you are below them, the debt collector.  A collection agency in an a-moral institution and therefore, you have no moral obligation to treat them any other way. 

Why You Have the Moral High-Ground: Over Collection Agents

You didn't choose to be unable to repay your debts.  You decided that you would grow up and be a teacher, a doctor, a farmer, a business professional, a coffee-shop worker or whatever it was that you chose, you wanted your life's work to be something that contributes to society and makes people happy.  The collection agent did not.  He or she decided that they wanted to spend their lives calling anyone, no matter what, or why, and trying to destroy their sense of self worth, humiliate, harass, and destroy the lives of anyone and everyone as long as they would get a commission out of it.  What sort of human being is that?  They are scum.  You didn't choose to be unable to repay your debt, they chose spend all day everyday hurting people.  You are a good person in a bad-situation, they are bad people acting as parasites on the weak, disadvantaged and unfortunate.  They prey on people who have fallen on hard times for a living.  You would never do that.  You are a much better human being than they will ever be.  You cannot allow a person like that to tell you that you are a "bad-person".

Why You Have the Moral High-Ground: Over the Original Debt

Credit Cards:

Credit card companies and financial are modern day slavers.  They didn't used to be.  When credit cards were invented they were to be used as a convenience and paid off monthly.  They were easier to use than cheques, and there were no ATM's at the time, so they provided consumers the ability to "charge" things and pay at the end of the month.  As recently as the 1980's, people used to have to take their pay cheques to branch every payday, then withdrawl the cash they needed for the month.  If you needed more it was back to your branch to wait in line for an hour, and god help you if it was after 4pm or a weekend.  That all changed in the 1990's.  Credit cards realized that they could make a lot more money of people didn't pay of their balances.  At the time, they would give you a $300-$500 limit so you could pay it off every month.  They decided to change the business model: if you could afford $300/month, why not give you a $10,000 limit and make your month payment $300?  Thus, the era of debt slavery began.  If they know you can only afford $300 a month, they'll have you wrack up a $10,000 debt at 20% and keeping you paying $300 forever, never reducing the principal.  They are predators, modern day financial slavers.  They DO NOT want you to be out of debt, the WANT you to be in over your head.  They want to make you their financial slave until you die.  If you havent seen the documentary "Maxed Out" I suggest you watch it.  It shows real cases of credit card companies driving people to suicide, and court judgments against the same companies for shreding peoples payments so they could charge them over-limit and late payment fees.

Fitness Clubs:

Credit cards companies are the worst offenders, but if you've ever had a gym membership, you know how that works.  I myself had a Goodlife membership that I cancelled and had sent to collections.  Gyms are notorious offenders for completely disregarding the truth and just chasing down payments.  In my case, I had been a member for years, went almost everyday, and never missed a payment.  When I moved and there wasn't location nearby I called in to cancel, and they told me that was fine.  Six months later I started getting calls from a "lawyer" debt collector who told me that I couldn't cancel over the phone and that I owed them $200.  After many, many emails to their head office telling them: "I cancelled, I've never missed a payment before and used to go almost everyday, I moved and cancelled, you can tell by your computers I have not been in a club since" all they said was, that they didn't care and to pay-up.  Eventually I told them that they obviously had no intention of retaining me as a customer despite my years of patronage, and that anyone would agree based on the stated circumstances that I was clearly in the right, so they would have to sue me.  Obviously they did not.  We'll come back to that later.

Utilities:

Bait and switch.  They get you in with promises of low monthly service costs, then you get your bill and it's full of usage fees, fees for everything, and purposefully convoluted billing schemes.  Rogers and Bell are the same in my experience.  I signed up for internet with them at $35/months, wth all the fees and everages I was paying $100/month.  How is that fair?  Imagine if your mortgage company did that.  Ok, well your payment is $1000/month, but you're using a different bank so thats an extra $1000 and you were late one month this year so there is another $1000.  If you budget based on what they tell you (say Rogers High-Speed Internet at $45/month and they charge you twice that, it's their fault if you can't pay it.  Stick the prices you advertise and then you'll have the high ground, play bait and switch and its your fault if I can't pay, and I don't feel bad for you for a second.  The same thing happens with cell phone, most Canadians sign up for $35 plans and end up at close to $100.  If you play bait and switch, you lose your ability to hold me to a moral contract.  I budgeted one thing and committed to pay it, you changed that price so that's your fault.

Why You Have the Moral High-Ground: That's Capitalism for Ya

Capitalism isn't a one way street.  Whether you're dealing with a bank debt, utility or whatever, they will do the exact same thing to you without considering the morality of it, so why should you.  If the company has a bad year, they fire people and say "Sorry, that's business.  I don't care if you moved here for this job, I don't care if you quit a job to work here, it's not personal, it's business".  If they go bankrupt, they won't pay you they money they owe you in wages, that's business.  If they're allowed to justify their decisions with "That's business", so can you.  They quoted you one thing and charged another so you can't afford it and won't pay it.  That's business.  They tried to enslave you at 20% by granting you $50,000 in credit even though you don't make that much in a year?  Screw you, I'm not your financial slave, that's business.  You have no business operating in such bad faith, so the trade of is that I'm not paying you.  You didn't care about my financial interest, so why should I care about yours?  Guess what, I don't.  That's business, and you can do it to me so I can do it to you.

Why You Have the Moral High-Ground: It's Intentional

Keeping these corporate evils in mind, it's important to note they put you in this position on purpose, you didn't get yourself into it on purpose.  They want you to pay 20% forever.  They want you to sign up for a three year contract at $35 a month, then charge you $100/month, $150 to move your service, and a variety of other fees that they pile on to financially pillage and enslave you.  You are not the bad-guy, they are.