Debt is a funny thing.
Not only because it has a silent B, but also because there is a certain level of trust in the process of it. At least, there was. Originally it comes from Latin and means "thing owed" and I assume due to human nature, it has been around a lot longer than financial currencies. When someone does something for you, when they help you, you are indebted to them. They might not expect a payment in return, but there is still that feeling, isn't there?
This is the timeline of US debt, where in 60 odd years, it has gone from zero, to forty billion. But perhaps what is more incredible, is that it has doubled in the space of about 10 years.
When looking at numbers this large, it is pretty hard to really understand what it means in terms of reality, but 40 billion dollars buys forty million, million dollar houses. There are about a million homeless people in the US on any given night. But it might also be easier to understand if breaking what this amount is for an individual US citizen. Each US citizen owes almost 120,000 in national debt. But, that really isn't fair, is it? Not everyone has a job or pays tax, and the money is coming from taxpayers, and *future taxpayers.
Each taxpayer owes 285,857 in national debt.
That amount grows by about 15 dollars a day.
5,475 dollars a year.
I wonder though, with all this money going around, being spent on improving American lives in some way, Making America great again - what experience does the average American get for their money? Have things really improved? Are the roads better, the schools, the parks? Do people feel safer on the streets, is there more money for more people to take holidays, buy some luxuries without using a credit card? Is your health better, those you care about improving?
Are Americans better off?
For a little thought experiment, imagine you have a credit card that you never have to pay back. Every year you have 5,475 dollars to spend on it. Would you be able to improve your life with it? No imagine everyone in the country had the same card. What would happen in the economy?
Granted, people are idiots with their money in general, but so are governments.
And it isn't their money.
As said, debt comes with a certain level of trust that the debt will be paid off, but let's face it, no government is ever going to be able to manage to pay down the US debt from this point, which means, it shouldn't be trusted. But as I was saying to a friend last night, all governments should be going heavily into debt.
Like, extreme debt.
But instead of enriching the few, they should use that debt money to do all they can to improve the social structure and lives of their citizens. Make the country a brilliant place to live, even though the debt keeps climbing. Why?
Because, the system isn't sustainable.
It has to collapse. And that collapse, at least from an economic standpoint, will be catastrophic. The type of thing that will not only start WWIII, but keep it going for IV and V as well. And the debt model, all these "IOUs" that countries have with each other, will be worthless. So all the countries that have been enacting austerity measures to pay down their debt, will have punished their people for years and be in the same position financially that all the countries that had extreme debt like the US model that keeps it operating as "the largest economy". The difference is, some people in the high debt countries got extremely wealthy, and then transferred that wealth into ownership that wasn't attached to currency.
Like a bunker to ride out WWIII, IV and V.
Now, factor in the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on the economy and realise how precarious the legacy economy is, and that it is fast approaching an unrecoverable failure point - and there is no save along the way. It is careening down a steep hill, toward a sheer cliff.
So, I think we have to question a system that keeps on printing and spending money, but there doesn't seem to be any positive development we can experience from it. Imagine going hungry to a restaurant with your credit card, ordering, paying, and leaving without getting anything to eat.
And still tipping for the service.
(I fucking hate tip culture).
If your business can't afford to pay staff properly, the business isn't viable.
(And they will still expect tips for their robots)
Yet while the average person isn't seeing any clear benefits, the rich keep on getting richer. So, how is that possible, when they are meant to get richer by selling things that make our lives better?
The silent B stands for Bullshit.
The debt system is fucked.
Stop defending it.
Taraz
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