OWS's 'Debt Resistors' Handbook Tells Readers to Lie, Cheat, and Steal

Occupy Wall Street is still hard at work trying to destroy the United States financial system, giving people specific advice on how to break the law through their book The Debt Resistors Operations Manual.

While the Occupy Wall Street movement is banking as much goodwill as possible by promoting its Occupy Sandy work, their online book is available for free and suggests to readers that they literally lie, cheat, and steal. 

The 132 page book has sections on getting out of student loans, squatting in houses, complaining via the media in order to get out of debt, and even includes four appendices with sample letters you can send to credit companies threatening to sue them. 

The heavily footnoted work is credited as a joint project of Occupy Wall Street and StrikeDebt.org, whose website describes their mission as:

Strike Debt came from a coalition of Occupy groups looking to build popular resistance to all forms of debt imposed on us by the banks. Debt keeps us isolated, ashamed, and afraid. We are building a movement to challenge this system while creating alternatives and supporting each other. We want an economy where our debts are to our friends, families, and communities — and not to the 1%.

The book is explicit in telling readers to break laws. For examples, the book has a section devoted to how you can rip off payday loan companies by getting a loan and then denying you did so. 

On page 75, the section “How to default on a payday loan” suggests you take out a loan and then:

3. Wait until they decide to debit you. Then call them up, ask why you were charged and tell them that you never filled out this application for a loan. Granted, this argument is more difficult if you used a payday loan before; you want to make it seem as if your financial situation is good enough that you don’t need one.

4. If you keep fighting, they will refund you. Fraud happens all the time on the internet, so your claims are perfectly plausible. If they persist, say that you’re going to call the relevant regulatory agencies. Many times they will cave in because most online payday loan companies do not want to get the government involved.

If this works, then you’re in the clear! You get free money, your credit score is unharmed and debt collectors will not harass you.

The book closes with, “To the financial establishment of the world, we have only one thing to say: We owe you nothing.”