…to resolving the national debt problem. They have traditionally defended the accumulation of governmental debt on the grounds that “we only owe it to ourselves.” All right, if we “owe it to ourselves,” why do we not just “forgive it” to ourselves (i.e., repudiate the indebtedness)? If, through some twisted sense of reasoning, I have convinced myself that I owed myself $10,000 — a “debt” that carried a hefty rate of interest — why would I want to waste my time trying to figure out how to earn an additional $10,000 so that I could pay off my indebtedness to myself? We don’t need an Austrian/libertarian solution to this mess: the Keynesians provided one for us! It’s a solution that has the most realistic base: repudiation of the debt will be the final answer in any case. Along the way, more people may discover who constitutes the “we” who owe this debt to “ourselves.” They may also discover that it is the same “we” who comprise that other phantom collective: “we, the people.”

The Best of Butler Shaffer