capitalism
Out of context: Reply #692
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- shapesalad2
"The critical factor behind this is the same thing which plagues nearly every part of any modernized society: usury. Once one understands the modern monetary system (specifically the critical role of debt in it) then so many things about the economy and human action make clear sense. Debt is the key driver behind the downfalls of many a great civilization and it continues to destroy silently and secretly from within any society it ensnares.
I recommend any youtube talk about debt / monetary system by Michael Hudson or Richard Werner. If you cannot come to terms with how debt totally dominates and distorts society you will forever be baffled by all of the oddities of modern life. Its effects transcend cultural boundaries, ruining diverse peoples all the same.
Were consumer debt to banned then housing, auto, education would all need to be priced such as to be affordable now with salaries earned in the present, rather than front-loading 30 years of future labor into a purchase made in the here and now. As it is today people are locked into debt serfdom to financial oligarchs whom create debt out of thin air (yes, mortgage loans and consumer debt are conjured out of literally nothing - it is not savings of person A being lent out to person B, but rather brand new money created from nowhere which exists as a mere accounting entry on a bank balance sheet). If you do the simple mortgage math a 30-year mortgage at current interest rates leads to about half of your payments going to the financial oligarchs as interest - interest they charge on money they created out of thin air at zero effort. In effect they lay claim on half of the labor you worked over a 30-year period just becuase they have the oligarchic privlege to create money out of thin air. Had you the privilege to create money out of nothing you could live high on the hog as well.
It is no mystery why things are getting worse worldwide despite all the propaganda obfuscation which claims otherwise.
No consumer debt, prices will plummet and be affordable to purchases made with savings earned with present incomes. That price differential is the savings not transferred off to the oligarchs.
With all of that production being returned to the worker rather than being transferred to the financial oligarch, who knows how much more abundant families would be. Families wouldn't live in debt serfdom, their labor would remain theirs to support larger families, and the regular people of the world would prosper, rather than the financial oligarchs as the modern system currently does.
Specific to the question of declining birth rates, another major factor is the modern devolution of having both parents leave the home in order to support a family. For thousands of years up until the modern age of the past century, both parents worked within the vicinity of their home. Think farmers, or European peasants tending their crops, or a shopkeeper who lives above his shop, or the such. But the modern age brought about a devolution in which people need travel tens of miles for an hour each day just to reach a location in which they can labor to support their families.
Get at least one parent back into the households on a full-time basis and watch birth rates rise. You'd also see local communities flourish again rather than empty out between 8am - 6pm every day. Combine this with a ban on consumer debt and you'd have both a cultural and economic revival. Or, don't, and we can continue sending our labor to financial oligarchs and spouses can continue competing against one another to drive down their wages (as supply of labor goes up, so too does competition, and thus down goes price, which in this case is your salary). Of course any one family which opts out will be crushed as all the other families still opt-in and thus out-bid you with their usurious mortgages and drive down your salary. But financial oligarchs and global corporate tycoons love that.
It has to be done at a societal level enforced by both culture and law." - Davis Blank. Youtube comment:
- Housing is the highest cost anyone has. Buy one, even if going in debt, pay down as quick as you can a man to avoid interest. As soon as it’s paid, you are freetoemaas