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Richard Vague, The Case for a Debt Jubilee
The Case for a Debt Jubilee
Richard Vague
polity
Copyright © Richard Vague 2022
The right of Richard Vague to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2022 by Polity Press
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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4874-3
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Vague, Richard, author.
Title: The case for a debt jubilee / Richard Vague.
Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “How we can stave off economic disaster by freeing millions from debt bondage”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021017322 (print) | LCCN 2021017323 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509548729 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509548736 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509548743 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Debt relief. | Loans, Personal. | Debts, Public. | Financial crises.
Classification: LCC HG3755.3 .V34 2022 (print) | LCC HG3755.3 (ebook) | DDC 332.024/02--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017322 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017323
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1 High Levels of Private Debt Stifle the Economy
In many of the most prominent ancient civilizations, including ancient Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, Akkadia, Egypt, Sparta, Corinth, and China, excessive household debt was a huge and recurring problem. This may come as a surprise to a reader today, because ancient societies are often misleadingly described as barter-based. In fact, debt was a necessary and pervasive part of these earliest economies, and our ancient ancestors quickly developed a sophisticated understanding of debt and lending, with laws and institutions to govern that lending. Debt did then many of the same things that it does now: it facilitated payment for labor, allowed for the acquisition of supplies, and bridged the time between planting and harvest – the reaping and then the sowing of profit.
Some families in these agricultural societies would find themselves with little option but to amass debts in order to live, but in time the burden of this debt could cause them to lose their land, their means of sustenance, and even their liberty, in the tragic form of debt bond servitude. This debt accumulated as unpaid bills, starting with fees and taxes owed to the king; debts to ale houses; and debts to the government for farming supplies. Interest rates were high and lenders quickly learned the power of compounding. Bouts of disease, drought, war, or other disasters often exacerbated citizens’ debt burdens. These ancient economies would sometimes reach the brink of collapse under the staggering weight of private indebtedness.
For this reason among others, kings devised the practice of debt forgiveness or amnesty as a solution. A king might proclaim a debt amnesty for a number of reasons,