It mechanically can’t be done.
Well, it can but there will be consequences.
Take a dollar from your pocket.
Look at it.
That’s a dollar of the “national debt”.
Getting rid of the debt means getting rid of all the money.
Ah… not so big & clever now, eh?
People (and I include myself 10 years ago) think that the “national debt” is some amount of money all the worlds countries have borrowed.
Who from? The f*****g Martians?
How can ALL countries be in debt?
Someone has to be running a massive savings account somewhere, right?
Wrong.
When a country issues money, they account for that money as debt.
Why?
Because in ye olden days of the Gold Standard, when you could exchange money for gold, money really was debt.
You issue $10 and someone, somewhere can rock up to the Fed and demand $10 worth of gold.
Which the Fed has to cough up.
So $10 during the Gold Standard was really, actual debt.
I have a promissory note and you have to give me what it says on the promissory note.
<drum roll please>
The Gold Standard ended (in the US) on August 15th 1971 when Nixon instructed Treasury Secretary Connolly to “suspend, with certain exceptions, the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets”
Oooohhh!
Aaaaahhh!
This is a very big deal.
Now the US dollar is backed by… nothing.
You can’t go to the Fed anymore unless you enjoy being laughed at and having a very large, very heavy door slammed in your face.
So if dollars aren’t backed by gold now, what are they backed by?
Well… what can you get for a dollar? Or say, $725?
You can get 100 hours of US minimum wage labour or the products thereof.
That’s what backs the dollar. US productive capacity.
That’s what backs all countries currency.
Big country, lots of industry? Strong currency.
Small country, no industry? Weak currency.
Would you rather have 100 dollars or 100 zabangos?
Yeah… do the math.
So…. the $34T question… can we get rid of the “debt”?
No. Not really.
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