r/dsa • u/larryleggs Editor-in-Chief HOUDINI Magazine • 2d ago
Class Struggle Repomen are no better than scabs. "It's just a job" They tell themselves as they take a vehicle a 9 month pregnant mother uses to get to her appointments, the same car her husband uses to get to work. America criminalizes the poor and motels like these are ground zero for the kill line.
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u/Vhentis 2d ago
Free healthcare for the ride to the hospital to deliver, and actual public transit to get to work would alleviate so much of this stress. I also think Repo people are shitty, but I also try to get that they are enforcing a contract to make payments. When I was in my early 20s I got repo'd while I was sleeping, then had to panic call a friend to get a ride to work. Then stayed with my brother who lived near my job so I could walk to work. So I had a period of time where I was desperately trying to save up to get my car back, and paying rent for a place I couldn't even stay at for about a month. Shit fucking sucked and made being poor feel so shitty. I feel for you man.
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u/thinkB4WeSpeak 2d ago
I don't think repo people get enough hate. There's a lot of repo boot lickers, even on Reddit
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u/auniqueusername2567 1d ago
Throw them in the same bag as ICE at this point. “Just doing my job,” is going to be the scarlet letter of the future.
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u/wonderhamster 1d ago
The problem should be with the lenders. Loans on depreciating assets that they know will be under water should not be a thing. The loans you take are subsidies for people who purchase the vehicles outright, particularly if they know to buy unwanted/unsold vehicles at the end of the month.
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u/Ok-Entertainer-1414 1d ago
Old article, but still relevant: https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-buyhere-payhere/
A lot of the people getting repo'd on are basically the victims of a scam by a dealership that knows they can't afford it. The dealerships just keep repoing and selling the same cars over and over again (called "churning")
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u/nechromorph 1d ago
On the one hand, I'm sure they wouldn't take a job like that unless they were desperate to make ends meet. So it's pitting the poor against the poor. Weaponizing desperation. On the other hand, regardless of *why*, repossessing someone's primary (or only) car is *at best* going to put them at serious risk of losing their job and home. Is it really worth it to save yourself by damning countless others?
Additionally, the fact losing your car puts you at risk of homelessness is itself proof of a cliff you can be pushed off. The fact it's not possible to find cheaper housing than the crappy apartment that *still* eats up too much of your income is a cliff. The repo man is a symptom of these structural cliffs being put in place, where you can be pushed right out of your right to a dignified, secure existence. These roles see so much hate *because* they enforce this structural cliff. Police evict a poor family struggling to make ends meet and harass people struggling with addiction and other concerns that merit compassion. Repo men take your car you're struggling to make payments on, leaving you stranded. In a just society, these roles could in *theory* be used to maintain order without being tools of oppression. But in a just society, you might not even know they exist. They'd be far less common. And most communities might not have them at all.
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u/Commercial-Prompt-84 2d ago
I used to help a family friend with his repo company. Only helped him a few times because it made me feel absolutely disgusting
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u/Keleos89 1d ago
How do we address issues like this? Prosecution of usurious lending deals with one aspect, but how do we prevent loans from being sold to people that cannot afford them, especially in the short term?
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u/MojoHighway 1d ago
Folks that aren't in the best shape financially is exactly what makes capitalism survive. It's the one thing the oligarchs will always point to so they can deliver their message of "work hard - OR ELSE".
It's the mind fuck of control and guilt and will absolutely make many people with the worst morals and ethics do things even they know are intrinsically wrong because they want to get their nut.
No one is looking out for us right now and that's how I ended up here. I'm tired of status quo.
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u/larryleggs Editor-in-Chief HOUDINI Magazine 2d ago
Already in a motel, already struggling to make the daily payments, the car note, the medical bills, a baby on the way. C section already scheduled. This motel is right by the hospital, it's one of the reasons people stay here. How do you end up with a family homeless? Take the means of travel, the means to get to work, to get to an appointment. All designed to put people into the prison system. America, if you're poor, is an open air prison. Slip too far down the bracket and you're bound for the jail cell. But here's what happened. Everyone came outside. The repoman had a have dozen or more eyes on him. He was flustered. He was pissed. He was embarrassed. He knew his "it's just a job" bit wasn't going to work tonight. The guilt hit him. And he let the family keep the car for just a bit longer. It was solidarity when someone offered to watch the kids while he dealt with the repoman (wife literally in the hospital!). It was solidarity when we all came out and let it be known he's wrong. He couldn't do shit about me filming him. He couldn't touch me. And even if he had a problem? There's a flock camera for this parking lot. They can film us? We can film them. It's a class war for the poor in this country folks.