cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/54239937
During the Great Depression, when banks foreclosed on farms, neighbors often showed up at the auctions together.
They’d bid only a few cents, and return the land to the family that lost it. Sometimes a noose hung nearby as a warning to outsiders not to profit from someone else’s ruin.
It was rough, but it worked, communities protected each other when the system wouldn’t.
If a collapse like that happened today, do you think people would still stand together or has that kind of solidarity disappeared? Could it happen again?
Did the banks go out roaming the streets helping people?
I don’t question if communities would band together, I question if a community banding together could still pose enough of a threat to a bank or auction to pressure such a sale.
What are a bunch of broke farmers going to do to prevent a foreign REIT from buying the property in an online auction?
You’re answering to the exact situation. I’m answering in more general terms.
True, but I also think that my exact answer likely generalizes to most situations where institutions are capitalizing on the suffering of people.
IMO this post isn’t about the willingness for people to help each other in times of need, it’s about the willingness (and ability) for the community to organize a defense against institutions that are using the situation to exploit the community.