What would actually happen if all debt was erased?

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By: Joe Brewer via commondreams.org

 

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO ERASE ALL DEBT?

We are living in a time when too many of our financial resources are allocated to non-productive activities — principally the accumulation of wealth by “making money with money” and a myopic focus on economic activities that service our massive debts.  This is why people work at jobs they hate.  It is why investments are not being made in renewable energy, public education, the arts, health care, or the eradication of poverty.  We have built a massive financial house of cards on debt — with money itself coming into being when loans are taken out, a pool that grows exponentially due to the interest that accompanies it — and so we are not able to bring consumer culture to an end or focus our creative talents on planetary sustainability.

By the way, this is exactly what my friends at /The Rules are trying to address in their global mobilization effort.

So if we were to erase all debt, the 7 billion people alive today could focus on their passions.  We could all come together to address global threats — be they resource-based like the scarcity of fresh water or peaking of global oil production; or cultural like the loss of spiritual meaning in the secularization of society or the soullessness of employment drudgery that comes from working long hours at a mind-numbing job.

What comes to my mind is the way cities try to implement broad solutions to address economic development, transportation, resource management, social justice, and environmental concerns.  They must operate within constrained budgets that keep draining further without a clear end in sight.  I imagine what would be possible if everyone was able to set out on their own intellectual and experiential journeys without the fear of a debt-collector coming to their door.  How then would the peoples of this world choose to live out their lives?

Perhaps you have your own dreams of a better world for you and your loved ones.  What comes to mind for you?  This is not merely an academic question, by the way, because we each participate in the social realities that are lent our beliefs, our actions, and our obligations.  If we were to collectively decide that our debts are no more, they would cease to exist.

This is because what we take to be real in many respects becomes so as a self-fulfilling prophesy.  We each have the power to be accountants — defining “the real” by choosing what to measure and imbuing it with significance.  In this way, the Gross Domestic Product was claimed as an economic alter for measuring the progress of civilization in the 20th Century.  Perhaps in the 21st we will replace it with Gross National Happiness or some other novel metric for capturing the essence of our values and purpose as a civilization on this Earth.

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12 COMMENTS

  1. We could use your help fighting the Big Banks, to stop them from foreclosing illegally!

    To find out how they are doing it, check here:
    livinglies.wordpress.com, bpinvestigativeagency.com, and deadlyclear.wordpress.com

    As far as how you can help you out to me through my email!

  2. are the rich or any scientist free from the elite’s system???
    why are they really building all that gear of rebrain and simlumating brains and deep mind… i mean they are robbing scientists already, right?
    like mri’ing brains predicting thought expressions and put it into computers like china’s top 500 best computer… for example…
    why don’t you people get a free system and free all others??? is that so difficult, because or you are free or you are inside their system, and you will only follow their intentions, belief energy ones…

    understand freedom and nature and how to survive at the most basic needs and associate your energy with the habitat…

    imagine that no rich or super rich or billionaire are not free and are following orders plus scientists are making what they believe it is useful because then it would be god vs devil like which is not true…

  3. The rich will get Richer. Most debt is held by the rich and given by the rich. The rest are just pawns. The only way this can be decimated is if everyone together in your Western World misses at least 6 credit card payments TOGETHER. And then talk

  4. How about forgive debt to people owning no more than 1 house per family group and less than 10,000 in assets ie, Jewellery, Cash, Lamborghini LOL and an income of no more than National average + 5% Forgive all debts as a result of Education, Medical and care. Debts resulting through legal action when won. In fact all debt for those earning the national average + 5% or below with little or no savings. Leave the debt with those that 1. earn enough to pay it and 2. Like to take the money from the less fortunate.

  5. The problem with society today is we don’t care about the important things and we prefer to buy useless junk or waste food. Generally we take things for granted more than ever. Technology isn’t helping the equation either. What do we need? Easy we need to come back to our roots of talking to people face to face, growing our own food or sharing a garden with others and connecting spiritually with Mother Nature. Our planet is being destroyed and it’s animals too. We can stop this by trying to limit our impact as much as we can.

  6. Possibly one of the more feasible solutions to the problem of personal debt is to eliminate ownership of assets. I recall one of my happiest periods of life, as well as most productive was as a member of the armed forces. I hardly made 400 dollars a month yet my level of existence was pretty good. I’m well aware that the direct costs of shelter and food and medicine were provided by Uncle Sam(the taxpayer) yet I gave a good portion of my time in exchange. My point is the only thing ownership provides is whatever it costs to maintain the item. Ideally, the real value does not depend on the item, but on the ability to direct its use! The difference is the rules. Where the rules are is where the corporate interests lie. Where the rules are untouchable as a way of treating others then you have moved beyond the rules. Many would say the golden rule is all that is needed, yet I would submit that it needs only a slight change…”Do NOT do unto others as you would NOT have them do unto you!” This was quoted from the author of Sic Atur Ad Astra

  7. I think cryptocurrency can change the game, we all use our phone, why not to use a algorithm based currency, like it was with the gold and many others before the worthless paper came and people really started to belive that living with debt is normal.

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