Who owes the National Debt?
Is debt an asset? If one person signs a promissory note to person number 2 creating a “debt”, person 2 believes they have an asset. This should be obvious, right? Well very much obviously yes for the last 12,000 years.
What if there are three parties involved in this? Person 1, government, and person 2. Person 1 does not sign a note, government does sign a note, person 2 believes they have an asset. Do you think person 2 really has an asset? Well think about this, government does not exist anywhere in the universe, except in contemplation of the human mind. And what humans do most is change their mind. “I did not understand it that way.” “I wasn’t there and didn’t do it.”? “I did not sign that agreement, my parents did and they are now dead.”
Second thought. For all of history, debt has been used by the rich to enslave the poor. One method of countering this, is for “government” to tax the rich, and give it to the poor. So what if government does not tax the rich, but borrows the money from the rich instead, and gives to the poor? In fact, government has made the rich richer; just like it has been done for thousands of years. Does this make the poor poorer? Not yet.
So, when will the poor be poorer? When the government fails; catastrophically so. This is a good time to read the book, “This Time It’s Different”; which outlines repetitive government collapse for the past 300 years all over the earth, each time thinking it could not happen.
So you think the current government can tax the rich this time to pay the debt. Even though half the rich are not citizens? Good luck with that one. The US will fail, it is just a matter of when. As the debt gets bigger, the odds go to 99.9%.
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What is real in this world is that debt of government is not real, but temporary modification of the ebb and flow of taxation for short periods of time; 3 to 5 years. When it exceeds the natural tides of taxation, it portends the end of that very government itself; most often with violence. The rich suffer, and the poor suffer more, even to death.