(09-16-2012, 08:03 PM)kandrathe Wrote: The wealthy are the creditors (the ones buying the t-bills), and the poor/middle class (with the government borrowing on their behalf) are the debtors. When it comes to paying it back, it has always, and will always be on the backs of the 99% and not the 1%.
Isn't this the precise opposite of what you've argued in the past, that it's the 1% who pay a vastly outsized portion of taxes?
Regardless, yes, I think the poor benefit from inflation and the rich suffer. Hence, why I'm happy to have those debts slowly liquidated by inflation, rather than amplified by deflation.
T-bills are super popular with pension funds and retirement savings. Lots of middle class people have some interest in them. Also with investment banks, hedge funds, and the government of China.
Quote:No, the world is not in debt according to your zero sum definitions.
Got any other definitions? I didn't invent accounting.
Quote:99% of the world is in debt to the 1% who will be our land lords.
Horsefeathers. Here are the numbers. The Chinese are incredible savers, and therefore enormous creditors. There are 1.2 billion Chinese, almost 20% of world population. Or are we so US-centric that we're just not counting them? (Also, holy crap, Norway.)
Credits equal debits, and just because you happen to live in a very rich country that's very far in debt, doesn't mean that's what the whole world is like.
-Jester