Sabbath Economics – An Old Solution to our New Economic Crisis
I just read an excellent summary of a Keynes-based economy. Here is my favorite exerpt:
“Remember that money is just a kind of illusion. In reality, there are just people who want things and people who make things. But we’re stuck in a completely ridiculous situation: there are lots of people who desperately want jobs making things — they’re literally not doing anything else — while at the same time there are lots of people who desperately want things made. It seems ridiculous not to do something about this just because some people have all the little green sheets of paper!”
This, to me, is EXACTLY the question! What are we to do about this? My proposal was to abolish money altogether and count productivity instead. However, Keynes has presented a workable formula already. And that’s not all. The formula that Keynes presented wasn’t even originally his. Keynesian economics is akin to SABBATH economics of the Bible!
The Bible declared every 7th year that debts would be cancelled and everyone would start from zero. That’s basically the wealth distribution that Keynes describes. Once the poor were no longer in debt, they would spend their non-owed money to keep stimulating the economy. In essence, to keep buying new things instead of paying off things already bought.
Instead of a new solution to the economic crisis, maybe we should just go with the old one.
Keynesian article here: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/keynes