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- Hudson tells us a history of antiquity that takes a sharp turn when ancient Rome decided to protect creditors over debtors, eliminating the jubilee and creating a hereditary aristocracy that drove Roman civilization into its grave.
Rather than recognizing the failed ideology of Roman civilization, we exalt it, erasing all the long-run, stable, debtor-friendly societies that came before it. The contemporary hypercapitalist ideology that holds that government’s only legitimate roles are protecting property and enforcing contracts are a thinly veiled version of protecting creditors over debtors.
The “contracts” that society upholds are inevitably debt-creating contracts; the “property” that society exalts is inevitably the accumulated rents from debt extraction.
- Remember, “debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid.” A society that protects creditors over debtors needs to invent all kinds of ways to squeeze blood from stones, as debtors’ debts mount and their ability to service their debts is eroded. Our modern society has turned its digital nervous system into a debt-collection superweapon