[HN Gopher] RIP Medical Debt
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       RIP Medical Debt
        
       Author : vincent_s
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2022-05-28 14:31 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ripmedicaldebt.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ripmedicaldebt.org)
        
       | hprotagonist wrote:
       | Jubilee. We've never quite managed it, but we keep trying.
        
       | nunez wrote:
       | John Oliver bought millions of dollars of debt for, like, $60k. I
       | can't afford to get into that game yet but I think I will in the
       | coming years. How can I do that?
        
         | NoahKAndrews wrote:
         | Why not via this website?
        
       | fujidust wrote:
       | I love the intent but doesn't this make the problem worse? Your
       | dollars are essentially rewarding a system that created the debt
       | in the first place.
        
         | foogazi wrote:
         | Not for the people whose medical debt is eliminated
         | 
         | Reminds me of https://www.thestarfishchange.org/starfish-tale
         | 
         | We all have to wait for the US to solve its systemic healthcare
         | problem - but we can make a difference in someone's life now
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | chizhik-pyzhik wrote:
         | The same argument is made against helping homelessness, right?
         | Providing overnight shelters makes being homeless less
         | miserable but doesn't really solve the root problem.
        
       | UncleEntity wrote:
       | Maybe buy up the debt and throw it on the blockchain as the basis
       | of a stablecoin?
        
         | sc68cal wrote:
         | why? so you can collect the debt yourself? That's not the
         | point. The point is to forgive the debt. If you want to be a
         | debt collector go be a debt collector, no blockchain required.
        
           | UncleEntity wrote:
           | But everything is better with blockchain.
           | 
           | As blockchain ideas go it is better than most I've heard.
           | People get their magical electronic coins they can use as
           | status symbols (or virtue signaling) and other people get
           | their debt paid off. Mining new coins is a social good. Win,
           | win and win.
           | 
           | When the whole house of cards comes crashing down nobody
           | loses anything since the coins have no real value other than
           | the "feels".
           | 
           | I was mostly just trolling originally but I'm starting to
           | like this idea.
        
             | NoahKAndrews wrote:
             | That says a lot about blockchain ideas
        
         | rubyn00bie wrote:
         | Sell sub-prime medical debt, on sub-prime blockchain, run by
         | sub-prime financial experts, to unqualified investors... And
         | finance it all with VC money? Sounds fucking genius to me, my
         | good dude.
         | 
         |  _Business Plan_
         | 
         | Step 1: Buy medical debt, starting with the highest risk debts.
         | 
         | Step 2: Move debt to blockchain.
         | 
         | Step 3: Yell, "it's ponzin time."
         | 
         | Step 4: Wait for technological or social exploit to render coin
         | worthless.
         | 
         | Step 5: Enjoy the destruction of medical debt.
         | 
         | Step 6: Rinse repeat with other forms of debt.
        
         | rs999gti wrote:
         | Isn't that just shifting the debt from one place to another?
        
           | sebastien_b wrote:
           | Not really - they're buying debt just like a debt collector
           | does, but don't collect on it - just forgives it outright.
        
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       (page generated 2022-05-28 23:01 UTC)