From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Tue Dec 05 2006 - 08:05:47 EST
> 1.2.1 The appropriate political form would be referendum on the abolition of all > debts. > The existing banking system would be thrown into instability by this. Abolishing > debts would abolish the debts that banks held to individuals as well, so the > measure could either be combined with the shift to labour tokens or one would > have to say that the banks would still be liable for personal credit balances > up to some modest figure - say a months wages which could be met by the > reserves of the banks. The measures in section 2 would have relevance to this. > Because of the impact of the cancellation of debt on the liquidity of pension > funds it would be politically essential to enact a very substantial rise in the > state pension prior to the cancellation of debt. Paul: I only have time for a brief reply so I apologize for the lack of comprehensiveness in the following. If you call for the abolishment of all debts, won't that be interpreted as a call to arms by many petty capitalists, small landlords, and those who are self-employed? Yes, I understand that many petty capitalists would gain if there was such a change. But, others would lose. And others who might gain could be expected to oppose it on principle since the mentality of petty capitalists is often that they see themselves becoming big capitalists. > 2. Democratising the Economy > a) Major strategic institutions like banking, energy, water, land telecoms, > rail, airports and ports would be put under not for profit companies a majority > of whose boards would be drawn from the general population of citizens of > working age, and having a minority representation of employees of the > individual not for profit company. A reasonable split might be 70% citizen > representatives and 30% employee representatives. How did you come up with the 70-30 division? btw, in your section on exploitation (putting aside for now the issue of whether banks exploit people through lending) I would suggest using another term than "usury". In solidarity, Jerry
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