Debt Shaming: Internalized Classism among Financial Peace University Students

• In Event: 106 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: Open Refereed Roundtable. A. Table 01. Class, Race, and Education

Abstract

Dave Ramsey is one of America's leading financial advisors, connecting to millions of people each year via his call-in radio show, newspaper column, books, and Financial Peace University (FPU), a curriculum taught in small groups within churches. Couched in self-help language and taking the format of motivational talks, FPU uses shame as a motivator in ways that, this presentation argues, not only ignore structural causes of poverty but actively call for policies that further limit opportunity for the poor, further shaming those who seek the help FPU promises. The central attraction of Ramsey’s message is this: Debt is bad and, by extension, those who have debt are “stupid” (to use one of Ramsey’s favorite words), selfish, lazy, unmotivated, and self-destructive. While Ramsey devotees argue that such shaming motivates middle class people who are spending beyond their means to reign in their unnecessary consumer spending, it also reinforces the Social Darwinist idea that those who are poor should not be assisted as doing so only undermines their motivation to change their own situation. Such debt shame, which has received some attention from psychology scholars but less from sociologists, particularly those with an interest in religion, affects not only those who carry it but also those they use it against. This presentation draws from ethnographic data taken from several FPU classes to explore specific examples of how class members have internalized debt shame, which they then turn on others in poverty to justify the end of the social safety net.

Author

• Rebecca Barrett-Fox, Arkansas State University