Debt Free
Judith Jones and Carolyn Kenyon raised $12,500 to buy up medical debts from creditors on the rate of a half-cent on the dollar. Then they forgave that debt, meaning that roughly 1,284 people in the red because of a medical procedure were discharged of the total $1.5 million they owed. The charity R.I.P. Medical Debt makes it particularly easy to forgive enormous and ridiculous amounts charged by the U.S. medical industry. Overall, 11 percent of Americans have had to turn to charity for relief from crushing medical debt.
Sharon Otterman, The New York Times
This item in the Num Lock newsletter got my attention. I looked up the two women, one aged 70 and aged 80. The younger is, or was, a clinical social worker. I didn't see anything about the background of the older woman. I also looked up Sharon Otterman, the reporter for the New York Times. As is my habit, I started following her on Twitter. She is "SharonNYT".
While doing that, I found Laurie Penny and her piece on a cruise she took with some recently enriched people who are getting engaged with blockchain technology. I haven't read anything by her before but the opening of this article is fresh, easy reading. So, I followed her on Twitter, too. The writing in question is here:
https://breakermag.com/trapped-at-sea-with-cryptos-nouveau-riche/
Laurie Penny is PennyRed on Twitter. She has several books, too.
Basically, blockchain is a method of storing money in such a way as to make it secure but without using banks. I saw this, too:
Laurie Penny's article and many others make clear that the blockchain approach is good and is having big effects. However, it is also the area of scams and tricks, as you might expect.
