It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(visit the link for the full news article)
More than a hundred and fifty years ago, Americans were thrown into jail for not paying their debts, until the country did away with so-called debtors’ prisons in 1833. Today, similar punishments have returned for those in over their heads in debts.
Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Well the headline is a bit disingenuous... No one has been jailed for debt... They've been arrest and jailed for not showing up to court regarding debt....
That's a huge difference there...
Originally posted by alaskan
Semantics is commonly used to refer to a trivial point or distinction that revolves around mere words rather than significant issues: “To argue whether the medication killed the patient or contributed to her death is to argue over semantics.”
Semantics - Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata
Originally posted by Carseller4
What ever happened to default judgements?
If you don't show up to dispute the debt, you automatically default and a judgement is rendered. Never heard of anyone going to jail for not showing up?
Originally posted by CREAM
Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Well the headline is a bit disingenuous... No one has been jailed for debt... They've been arrest and jailed for not showing up to court regarding debt....
That's a huge difference there...
I dont think there is a difference. Debt is still the original cause and jail is still the end effect no matter how you look at it or reword it. So I personally think the title is not misleading.
Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Well the headline is a bit disingenuous... No one has been jailed for debt... They've been arrest and jailed for not showing up to court regarding debt....
That's a huge difference there...
Originally posted by CREAM
Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Well the headline is a bit disingenuous... No one has been jailed for debt... They've been arrest and jailed for not showing up to court regarding debt....
That's a huge difference there...
I dont think there is a difference. Debt is still the original cause and jail is still the end effect no matter how you look at it or reword it. So I personally think the title is not misleading.
Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Originally posted by alaskan
Semantics is commonly used to refer to a trivial point or distinction that revolves around mere words rather than significant issues: “To argue whether the medication killed the patient or contributed to her death is to argue over semantics.”
Actually no...
Semantics - Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata
And this isn't a trivial point... for example, it doesnt matter what you have been subpoenaed to court for, jaywalking, speeding ticket, the neighbor claims you are burning corpses on a daily basis but is a lunatic and is wrong and you would even win...
But if you don't show up for court you get arrestd and put in jail... That is not semantics... NO ONE has been jailed for debt... they have been jailed for not showing up for court.... had they shown up, they would never have been jailed...
You see the difference?
Maybe you don't, because you didn't understand the definition of semantics to begin with.
Originally posted by alaskan
Semantics is commonly used to refer to a trivial point or distinction that revolves around mere words rather than significant issues: “To argue whether the medication killed the patient or contributed to her death is to argue over semantics.”