[PEN-L:4676] Re: Trond's Debt/Asset polarization model

[JOHN CROSS <CROSS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	And then there is always the 10 billion year "star formation"
cycle that shouldn't be forgotten.

	Regarding the "Jubilee" idea--yes, of course in many "pre modern"
societies deabt and wealth inequalities were viewed as negative things that
threatened the stability of society. In the old testament, for example, there
is reference to a 50 year period (I think) after which all property reverted
to its original owners (or something to that effect). The point is that
these WERE premodern societies, and no amount of fantasy should lead as to
believe that the "good old days" can be brought back. History marches forward,
not backward, and the point of studying history is to get some idea of where
we are going, not to idealize where we have been. Marx labelled that as a
particular kind of reactionary utopianism. (Wait a sec... let me get the
reference... oh, no, there goes my Marx collection out the window...)

	Of course, maybe thats where Marx "went wrong"....

	Getting serious for a second, if antone out there thinks that the
"powers that be" will sit back for a second and even contemplate such a
"jubilee" than you should probably check yourself into a lunatic asylum.
If people agree with that statement, then why not just call for a
revolutionary expropriation of the means of production and whatever? Or
maybe that idea isn't "novel" enough for you? Or maybe you do just have
a petty-bourgeois reactionary utopia in mind, after all, you talk about
cancelling debt, but what about making truely radical changes that would
make the whole concept of debt itself primitive and archaic?

john cross