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Comment by djsumdog

The thing about loans, that is borrowed capital that you use to try and create more capital, is that there isn't enough capital to go around. Capitalism does depend on a certain percentages of businesses failing, and that debt being written off.

You also can't make loans with BTC because debt needs to be enforceable. There must be violence behind debt. In the past that meant someone turns you into a slave or breaks your legs. Today the violence has been reduced (you get bad credit score and debt collectors keep calling), but it's still there. States have to have a monopoly on violence to enforce debt.

I don't really agree with where this guy is going, because the entire way loans are used to generate fiat currency isn't really sustainable. David Graeber has talked a lot about every great civilization has needed some form of debt relief at some point, either when a new leader comes in or when the civilization collapses.

People in the ancient world knew the empires they lived under would eventually end. Today in many high income countries, most people cannot see the end.

parent djsumdog 9 years ago

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