Armchair Activism (I'm Still a Beginner)

My first steemit post!

I am a father, husband, homeowner and corporate drone who has to bust his butt for a sprinkling of fiat currency every day. I have allowed myself to be drawn into debt (credit cards, mortgage and student loans) to the point that the thought of losing my job is a nightmare. I am not proud of this and I am working to try and pull myself out and am hellbent on making sure my children do not follow my footsteps into financial slavery.

But despite my personal failure to avoid the trap, I continue to try and find ways to take potshots at the establishment. Cryptocurrency, entrepreneurship, art and activism have been my favored tools in trying to remove myself and my family from the oligarchical control that has rooted itself into this nation. As far as activism goes, having a family makes one second-guess engaging in activities that my get you arrested, and I admit I have gone soft on that front in a big way. Through the years I have had to find ways to protest that I felt sent the message and would keep me annoyingly out of reach of “disciplinary action” by the corporate overseers I was taunting.

The one I want to share with you today is a, I feel, simple way to slap at (albeit slightly) the federal reserve-backed, central banking controlled, financial industry.

The Scenario:

Every year, billions of unsolicited credit card offers are sent out to homes and businesses. If you add to this the number of unsolicited home, life and auto insurance offers, this number could shoot up to tens of billions. This shotgun approach has likely coerced many millions into signing on to the debt system, earning these banks and companies millions of dollars through their predatory actions. For those of you living in the US and who have a permanent address, this is probably not something unfamiliar to you.

To take it a step further, much of this paper and shipping material is filler. There's the sales pitch, the “disclosure,” the agreement and the return envelope. The small slip of paper that you sign to give them the write to own a piece of you and to market you to other institutions and the envelope are the only things that get sent back, postage guaranteed.

The Action:

This is something I had started doing a few years ago, mostly out of annoyance of the clutter and the wasteful nature of the solicitations -

1. Open the envelope and find the return envelope inside.
2. Take all of the contents and place them into the return envelope.
3. Fold the original envelope up and place that into the return envelope.
4. Seal the return envelope and send it.

If nothing else, it made me feel better that I was able to return their trash to them on their own dime.

For the Annoying Bills:

It is my fault that I am in this mess and I own that, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it. Like most people, I handle most of my finances electronically, but the statements still come in the mail. Most of these statements also come with excess material as well.

Sometimes I will take the statement and tear it in half, place it in their envelope and then place it in another envelope and send it that way. I had discovered that this prompts an “investigation” by the institution. I would receive calls questioning when I sent the payment and how much the check was for. All in the guise of helping me, but it was so they could recover their funds. I would toy with them when they suggested I cancel the check and resend it by simply saying no and that they would need to find it. It proved that they did no research to see that the payment was already posted electronically.

Another tactic I employ is sending back my statements with a blank piece of paper (that happens to be the same size as a check) stapled to it or other unsolicited material included in the envelope. This appears to trigger something in their remittance centers that causes them to manually handle the envelopes. This led to calls and letters asking that I stop and suggesting that I use their auto-pay services.

What is Accomplished?

I would have to argue almost nothing. The amount of money they spend on me in a year is probably less than a drop in the bucket compared to the many millions or even billions of dollars they make during the same period.

But, what if everyone did it? What if all the receiving and remittance centers for all these institutions found themselves clogged with many thousands of these sabotaged envelopes on a daily basis? Eventually, they'll start billing us for the postage and handling, that's for sure. But in the meantime, they may see their costs going up in ways they didn't expect and find difficult to track. Maybe they find themselves faced with a situation where they realize that their long-time go-to model of predatory lending/baiting people is just as susceptible to victimization as the unqualified borrowers they trick every single day.

Just some ramblings. Take from it what you will.