activism economics wealth

Move the Zero

Here’s an innovative idea for tackling world debt – since 90% of debt is imaginary money, spirited out of thin air by the banks, why don’t we ‘move the zero‘ on our debts and write off the made up bit?

As you will know if you’ve been paying attention to the financial crisis, most of the money in the world banking systems does not exist. A mere 10% of the figures tossed around actually exists anywhere as real wealth. All the rest is written in as debt, downpayments on future earnings.

Since it doesn’t exist, there’s no reason why that 90% couldn’t be written off at a stroke, saving the world’s tax payers from a burden of debt that our children’s children are currently destined to carry. Moving the zero would reset the banking system, bring money back down to earth and give us a fresh start.

As a proposal, I like it. It has the ring of the Old Testament’s jubilee principle, where all the debts were cancelled every 50 years so that poverty wasn’t passed on to the next generation. In practice, politicians are too craven to ever consider such bold ideas, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask. Let’s shame them with a more just, more generous, and more common sense solution than anything they’ve proposed so far – click here to sign the petition.

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