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Subject: 
Re: A hypothetical economics question...
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Thu, 28 Feb 2002 09:08:29 GMT
Viewed: 
235 times
  
No way. I spent all my adult life avoiding debt (other than my mortgage -
and the rate I pay on that is *less* than I get on my savings). I don't see
why I should pay for others getting bank loans to play the stock market.


In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler writes:
What would happen if all debts public and private were just plain
cancelled as of, say, 1/1/2002?  I choose an already-passed date so that
there couldn't be a mad dash to accrue huge debt in hope that it would be
eliminated.  In all seroiusness, what would be the effects?   Credit card
companies, I suppose, would suffer mightily (though I've heard that the
monthly point-of-purchase service charges are a greater revenue source than
cardholder-finance-charges).  Sallie, Fannie, and Ginnie Mae would likewise
take quite a pinch of course.  But after the dust settled, would we be
better off or worse?  I've read in unconfirmed sources that private consumer
debt in the US approaches that Federal debt for sheer magnitude, but I can't
confirm that figure.

I'm sure I read that US consumer debt > US consumer savings?

Scott A

=+=
Have you inspected Arthur’s Seat yet?
http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=scotta

"A reasonable man adapts himself to suit his environment. An unreasonable
man persists in attempting to adapt his environment to suit himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." (GBS)
=+=


For the moment, I'm not concerned about "the Fed can't interfere with
private debt," since this is a theoretical question.  I'm also aware that
international debt would still need to be addressed, and that the debate
over the appropriate as-of date would be phenomenal.  Any thoughts?

   Dave!



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: A hypothetical economics question...
 
(...) Careful about making such assertions, or you'll be labelled a classist! In any case, you're correct (by a long shot, I believe). Dave! (23 years ago, 28-Feb-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
  Re: A hypothetical economics question...
 
(...) Quite recently, I saw a graph of the net private debt/savings in the US. Since the second world war, the average debt of US households had increased from roughly 0% of the household income to around 100% today. This means that on average, US (...) (23 years ago, 28-Feb-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  A hypothetical economics question...
 
What would happen if all debts public and private were just plain cancelled as of, say, 1/1/2002? I choose an already-passed date so that there couldn't be a mad dash to accrue huge debt in hope that it would be eliminated. In all seroiusness, what (...) (23 years ago, 27-Feb-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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