At crucial moments, it can be challenging to think outside the box, even when thinking inside the box is what brought us to the crucial moment in the first place. Our financial crisis is a great example: Debt and bubbles are what brought us to the cliff, and our leaders seem to think we can fix our debts and bubbles by wrapping more debt in a bigger bubble.
I'd prefer the biblical solution. In Leviticus 25, every 50th year is a Jubilee year. Slaves are freed and debts are forgiven.
In the biblical iteration of Jubilee, all the land went back to it's original owners, so real property was in effect only leased in those times. (Notes were actually calculated based on the number of years left until Jubilee.) I'm for widespread ownership of private property (one of the most powerful instruments of Liberty) so my idea works a little differently.
The Jubilee I've conjured up is arguably our best (and perhaps our only) shot at cleaning up this financial mess and more importantly, salvaging this nation in recognizable form. In my version, all debts will be forgiven, but property will remain in the hands it's in today. If your name is on a mortgage, the house is yours - free and clear. All consumer debt will be forgiven as well, and all financed items are yours to keep. All government debt will likewise be erased, and since that debt is taxpayer funded, the income tax that pays interest on it will be repealed. (This satisfies the biblical imperative that Jubilee free the slaves.)
My Jubilee would be a one-time event, and would usher in permanent changes in how we do business. In the post-Jubilee era, there would be no deficit spending by government, period. The Fed will be completely phased out in a short period, and which money will again be coined out of metals of intrinsic value, as originally mandated by the Constitution.
The immediate effect of Jubilee would be the rebirth of the American Entrepreneur and the rebirth of the American Consumer - not in the unhealthy speculative way we've seen recently, but in the forward-looking "invest for the future" way that built this nation in the first place. Without the burden of all this bubble debt, there will be a resurgence beyond anyone's wildest dreams - an American Renaissance, if you will...
It's obvious this would be a cataclysmic event, but we're headed for a cataclysm anyway, and on our current path the aftermath will be very different and much worse. If we continue down this road, the entire debt and equity bubble will be refinanced into a public debt bubble. (We're at least two trillion dollars down that hole in the first four weeks of the Obama presidency, and they're just getting started.) When all is said and done, America's tax burden on this debt will be crushing. Our taxes will be as high (or higher) than any European nation, but in our case there will be no services returned - all our money (all our efforts, in other words) will go to pay interest on debt.
What we need is not revolution, but Restoration. Restoration of honest money. Restoration of limited government. Restoration of rights, which is also the restoration of incentives. In all respects, a Restoration of Liberty.
If we start out with that in mind, a Jubilee would be a most empowering event. As I envision Jubilee, it would mean we reclaim the original promise of America. A Restoration of our God-given rights, of the chance to work for our own gain and the opportunity to live life as we see fit in the context of our neighbor's right to do the same. A future that has such promise would be a good reason to invest again, too, and I'm sure folks would do just that.
This whole Jubilee idea is only partially developed here. If we manage to erase all of the bad, we'll need a much more ironclad char of the good to replace it. That's a lot of detail to be worked out, and I may revisit this topic and do just that.
We're at the economic cliff, and it turns out to be the moral cliff as well. Doing more of the same equals leaping into a dark and hopeless future - one in which the light of Liberty may be extinguished for generations. The decision is upon us - do we leap into the abyss or turn back to the light?
I'd prefer the biblical solution. In Leviticus 25, every 50th year is a Jubilee year. Slaves are freed and debts are forgiven.
In the biblical iteration of Jubilee, all the land went back to it's original owners, so real property was in effect only leased in those times. (Notes were actually calculated based on the number of years left until Jubilee.) I'm for widespread ownership of private property (one of the most powerful instruments of Liberty) so my idea works a little differently.
The Jubilee I've conjured up is arguably our best (and perhaps our only) shot at cleaning up this financial mess and more importantly, salvaging this nation in recognizable form. In my version, all debts will be forgiven, but property will remain in the hands it's in today. If your name is on a mortgage, the house is yours - free and clear. All consumer debt will be forgiven as well, and all financed items are yours to keep. All government debt will likewise be erased, and since that debt is taxpayer funded, the income tax that pays interest on it will be repealed. (This satisfies the biblical imperative that Jubilee free the slaves.)
My Jubilee would be a one-time event, and would usher in permanent changes in how we do business. In the post-Jubilee era, there would be no deficit spending by government, period. The Fed will be completely phased out in a short period, and which money will again be coined out of metals of intrinsic value, as originally mandated by the Constitution.
The immediate effect of Jubilee would be the rebirth of the American Entrepreneur and the rebirth of the American Consumer - not in the unhealthy speculative way we've seen recently, but in the forward-looking "invest for the future" way that built this nation in the first place. Without the burden of all this bubble debt, there will be a resurgence beyond anyone's wildest dreams - an American Renaissance, if you will...
It's obvious this would be a cataclysmic event, but we're headed for a cataclysm anyway, and on our current path the aftermath will be very different and much worse. If we continue down this road, the entire debt and equity bubble will be refinanced into a public debt bubble. (We're at least two trillion dollars down that hole in the first four weeks of the Obama presidency, and they're just getting started.) When all is said and done, America's tax burden on this debt will be crushing. Our taxes will be as high (or higher) than any European nation, but in our case there will be no services returned - all our money (all our efforts, in other words) will go to pay interest on debt.
What we need is not revolution, but Restoration. Restoration of honest money. Restoration of limited government. Restoration of rights, which is also the restoration of incentives. In all respects, a Restoration of Liberty.
If we start out with that in mind, a Jubilee would be a most empowering event. As I envision Jubilee, it would mean we reclaim the original promise of America. A Restoration of our God-given rights, of the chance to work for our own gain and the opportunity to live life as we see fit in the context of our neighbor's right to do the same. A future that has such promise would be a good reason to invest again, too, and I'm sure folks would do just that.
This whole Jubilee idea is only partially developed here. If we manage to erase all of the bad, we'll need a much more ironclad char of the good to replace it. That's a lot of detail to be worked out, and I may revisit this topic and do just that.
We're at the economic cliff, and it turns out to be the moral cliff as well. Doing more of the same equals leaping into a dark and hopeless future - one in which the light of Liberty may be extinguished for generations. The decision is upon us - do we leap into the abyss or turn back to the light?
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1 comment:
Excellent post
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