Paul Vigna proposes frequent debt jubilees. He says there are only two motivations in an economy: greed and morality. He complains correctly that we’ve organized our economy on greed and debt. To favor morality more, he wants occasional debt jubilees, saying that ancient governments realized it was the best way of restoring stability and giving more power to non-greedy people.
In fact the idea is not ancient or strange at all.
We performed a debt jubilee in 2008.
We not only forgave but lavishly rewarded the biggest and greediest of the stock criminals. Moral people continued losing. A jubilee WILL NOT HAPPEN unless Larry and Elon and Zuck get all the benefits.
There are two other alternatives, one familiar and one less so.
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Familiar: Shape the economy and life toward savings instead of debt.
Islam aims in this direction, though modern Muslim countries don’t really follow it. Many other religions and cultures operate this way, and usually manage to succeed and thrive while nearby debt-oriented people are failing. Mennonite farmers quietly prosper while bank-dependent infidel farmers in the same counties fail. Mormons are STRONGLY pro-savings and also succeed in a quiet way.
Even within normal Protestant capitalist life, companies who choose savings over debt, real investment over stock crimes, prosper while others go bankrupt. I’ve told the Nash story often. Charles Nash wasn’t religious or socialist. He simply grew up with a determination to run his life by storing wealth and valuing human work instead of seeking Share Value. He spent 20 years at GM, worked up to the top, then departed to start his own company after stock criminal Billy Durant proved incorrigible. Nash Motors was, as the Christians like to say, in the stock crime but not of the stock crime. Nash made a profit more often than other companies in the 30s, was free to fight fashionable trends, and lasted until 1987, because its tradition favored preserving money, preserving workers, and reusing designs.
Ford took a different path, strictly avoiding the stock crime but allowing careful use of bank debt. Henry said:
As betting at the race ring adds neither strength nor speed to the horse, so the exchange of shares in the stock market adds no capital to business, no increase in the production and no purchasing power to the market.
Ford didn’t join the stock crime until 1956 when young drunkard Henry II was stupidly in charge. After joining the stock crime, drunk Henry II brought us the Edsel instead of the Model T. Even so, the family tradition was strong enough that Ford avoided the jubilee in 2008.
The Soviet system agreed with Sharia in avoiding debt. Russia didn’t even notice the 30s Depression or later stock crime crashes.
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Less familiar: Medieval England approached the question by following actual nature, not Natural Law.
Nature uses both debt and storage simultaneously, constantly restoring balance. Imbalance in either direction is sometimes necessary but Nature insists on nulling the balance FAST.
Physical balances and scales showed the rule. A linear balance was literally blessed and an exponential (stock-style) balance was literally cursed. Licensing was universal, granting a privilege for a certain period in return for useful performance. Every debt and crime had to be balanced out by work or money. All property was considered to be common. A plow or piece of land could be used exclusively as long as the user gave value to the collective.
Emerson said:
A wise man will know that it is always the part of prudence to face every claimant, and pay every just demand on your time, your talents, or your heart. Always pay; for, first or last, you must pay your entire debt. If you are wise, you will dread a prosperity which only loads you with more. Benefit is the end of nature, but for every benefit you receive, a tax is levied.
Polistra's Mill 