How Paying Off Debt is an Anti-Capitalist Act

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Debt freedom is more than just being rid of monthly payments.

Over a flight of kombucha, Joanne and I get to talking about our finances. Friends for three years now, our easy conversation ranges across all the domains of our lives – love, money, work, creative pursuits. Sometimes, these take the form of PowerPoint presentations when a few weeks have lapsed between meetings. This day’s PowerPoint had exciting news. My student loan balances are now below $10,000 and I’m projected to pay that off in less than a year.

Shocked, Joanne asks how that’s possible. She confides in me that she feels like she’s drowning in her debt and doesn’t know where all her money goes every month. She has medical debt, owes money to the IRS, and a five-figure credit card balance. She lamented that her list of debts only seems to grow – debts she feels like she’ll never be able to pay back. 

By the time we leave the kombucha bar we’ve struck a deal. I will analyze her finances from the last year and help her figure out how to get out from under what feels like an impossible financial situation - $25,000 in consumer debt and an unknown amount of student loan debt (turned out to be an additional $57,000) – and in exchange she will pet-sit for me this winter. 

It may seem shocking that this kind, funny, intelligent, math teacher is $82,000 in debt before the age of 30, but her situation isn’t unique. In fact, Joanne’s total debt load is average for her gender – in 2024, the average American woman has $85,000 in debt (including mortgages, student loans, credit cards, and auto loans). 

While there is an entire genre of social media content that centers on shaming people (especially women) for what’s seen as “bad financial decisions,” our society requires that we accrue debt. 

You need to have some kind of debt to get a credit score and your credit score then determines your ability to rent an apartment, take out other loans, open accounts with the utility company, get a home repair, and even some jobs require a credit check. 

Debt in general is bound up with notions of responsibility in a culture that encourages both overconsumption and conspicuous consumption.  

However, the majority of Americans use credit cards to pay for non-essential items. 

Joanne was shocked to learn that her overspending was from going out to eat – something she did out of convenience rather than necessity – and a short-term reduction in the amount of she spent on eating out would allow her to pay off some of her smaller debts.  


As I worked through the piles of PDFs comprising Joanne’s finances, I got to think more deeply about how debt ensnares us, and how debt pay-off is really an anticapitalist practice. I see there being four interrelated reasons.  

1. The capitalist system needs people to be buying things, even when wages are low. 

As David Graeber writes, one of the defining features of capitalism is “that it is a motor of endless production, one that can maintain its equilibrium, in fact, only by continual growth”. It might even be said that capitalism cannot survive without debt, and this is why capitalism as an economic system and a social paradigm encourages overconsumption.  

2. It’s a stand-in for paying workers enough. 

We can still consume goods and services even when wages are low, which is also good for industry. As these French anthropologists describe, “debt steps in to fill the void created by meager and unpredictable incomes, as well as the failure (or reluctance) of private capital to offer fair wages.” Underpaid workers can use debt to access things like medical care, which in the US is expensive, even with an employee-sponsored insurance plan. 

3. The credit card companies primarily generate their profits off the people who aren’t paying down the balance. 

An analysis by EMarketer estimates that two-thirds of US credit card company revenue came from fees and interest charges. It’s a trillion-dollar industry that is largely chewing up the people who already earn less and own less. As this NYT Op-Ed found, credit card perks are largely funded by the fees that lower income card holders pay when they miss a payment or accrue interest. The capitalists who employ us profit from depressing our wages, and then different capitalists profit from us using credit. 

4. It keeps you tethered to exploitative wage employment. 

Because you have to make those monthly payments, you may be loathe to leave your current job even if the environment is toxic, the commute is long, or the workplace unsafe.. This is very much apparent in those who have six-figure incomes and toxic work environments but feel like they can’t quit their jobs because they have to service their debt, usually mortgages, car payments, and credit cards. 

One of the primary (anti-capitalist) ways to work towards paying off debt is by consuming less. By tracking what I was spending my money on, I was able to cut back on purchases that were for things that weren’t really bringing me joy or improving my life. 

I don’t need to consume to be happy, and I don’t want to consume because I have other goals. I’ve also come to derive joy from subverting planned obsolescence, searching for deals, and finding free and low-cost alternatives to things I want to enjoy.  

As my debt burden dwindles, I’m finding I don’t really mind frugality. I enjoy reusing old things, recycling and upcycling wherever I can. 

I also find a lot of other benefits from frugality. Eating out less and cooking more means more control over what goes into my food – something important in the era of ultra-processed foods. I can choose how many extra calories I want to add, and can always accommodate my food allergies. 

Over a decade ago, David Graeber said that denouncing consumption is essentially elitist, stealing the last bit of joy from working people. I think that for those of us who are interested in going from surviving capitalism to resisting capitalism, it’s fair to advise that we should be reducing excessive consumption if only because it is one step closer to lessening our exploitation and participation in capitalism.  

Any internet finance guru will tell you that money means freedom. Freedom to do what you want with your time. It means more time for creative pursuits or unproductive activities, working less and more time spent with friends and family. Removing debt from your life means all your income goes a little bit farther because you’ve removed a financial obligation. 

What would your life look like if you didn’t have debt? 

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