A lady screamed that at me over the phone a few weeks ago. I told the story to some friends, who laughed. I laughed, too, because sometimes all you can do is laugh to keep sane and to keep from crying.
As we are all aware, people are deeply in debt these days. Mortgages, medical bills, credit cards, whatever. It piles up, and defaults happen. There are legal remedies for these companies, including lawsuits. Sometimes, especially with credit card companies, they decide to sell stacks of debt for pennies on the dollar, cutting their losses and letting other people take the time and spend the energy trying to collect.
My company buys some of these debts, and it's my job to call the debtors and get the money.
As you can probably imagine, business is booming thanks to 8 years of mismanagement and general fuckery on the part of Republican assholes and recent capitulations from Democratic cowards. So I make a lot of phone calls. The lady who told me I was ruining her life was real. She also said she hopes I lose my job, my house and my livelihood and people call ME for money so I can see what she's going through.
Of course, being that we have access to her files, I know she lives in a nice house (which she owns), has 3 cars (all paid for), and has 5 banks accounts all overflowing with funds, enough to pay her debt 100 times over. Whether by greed, obstinance or general apathy mixed with spite, she chooses instead to spend more money than her original debt to avoid paying it off. She also likes to lie about her situations, so it's easy for me to laugh at her screaming obscenities at me while wishing a plague on my house, and then on my other house just for some Mercutio-style good measure.
I hear dozens of sob stories a day. Lost jobs, divorces, illness, just all of a sudden everything fell apart. Some of it is bullshit, some may be true, some is definitely true, and unfortunately none of that matters. I don't get paid to care, however callous that may sound, and I'm working two jobs right now to help repay my own debts and to help my parents avoid becoming another foreclosure statistic.
So, I make the calls. I swallow the empathy, I try and let their stories wash over me and then right off, leaving barely a memory of the pain and humiliation that accompanies such situations.
Sometimes, it's a little much. Like the man who had a stroke 3 years ago, and while he was hospitalized his drug-addicted nephew made off with his bank accounts and credit cards, racking up tens of thousands in debt before handing off the info to his dope-dealing friend for further abuse. Now, with the new bankruptcy laws, he's splitting his money between lawyers for bankruptcy and medical bills for his stroke.
Or the woman who had 4 children. One died, another is addicted to heroin and alternates between rehab and ditching rehab to shoot up, another who was in a horrific car accident which paralyzed her and cost her one of her legs (she's also addicted to meth now), and the other is living in another city doing God knows what for money.
Or the disabled veteran who gets $300 per month to live on. He's in and out of shelters and is in friend's houses. He told me today that a lawyer friend of his told him to just disappear, to never contact our office again (since we have no residence for him, tracking him down would be difficult and possibly not even worth the time), and he said that there's only one thing that keeps him going during this tough time: pride. Pride that he will own up to his responsibilities and do what he needs to do. He said he was sending us $100 this weekend.
Another man wants to buy his son a present for Christmas, since he didn't have any money for his birthday three months ago. Unfortunately, it was either pay the gas bill and keep from freezing or sending us our money. Now we're in the process of vacating our agreement, which saved him a few thousand dollars and re-installing the original judgment. "Do what you want, I'm buying my son a God damn bike for Christmas" he yelled at me last week.
Author's Note: The stories above have been altered, by the way. Not for emotional strength, but just in case someone from my company happens to read this (I doubt it, but who knows). I've heard some stories that I know are true (medical records, court records, etc) that are all worse than the ones above. It's not a pleasant job. Anyway, break's over. back we go.
I'm just a collector, so I can't help them with much more than setting up payment plans and explaining a few processes to them, so I often feel helpless. Most of the help I want to give them would get me fired, but sometimes, accidents happen and I might just forget to call someone so his son can have a helmet to match his new bike this Christmas.
Accidents happen, you know.
But there are times when I call someone and hear nothing but acceptance in their voice. Resignation that they are now without options, and their credit will suffer. We may freeze their bank account, we may garnish their paycheck, and such things may mean that they'll have to eat a little less this month, or maybe cough a little bit longer until they can buy their medicines.
We can't dwell on the maybes or let the stories sink in, but invariably they do. And it's not as easy to just shrug and say, "I'm only doing my job." I know I am, but I can't help but feel complicit.
At work, I'm constantly reminded of the legacy of George W. Bush: utter, complete failure and ruin.
A man who can't buy his son a present.
A veteran who receives almost nothing in disability but gives us money anyway.
A woman who lost so much and might lose even more.
An uncle betrayed who now must wade through confounding bankruptcy procedures to shield himself and rebuild his life.
That is the new face of America.
You've left a hell of a legacy, Georgie.