Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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Economists are trained to think in terms of net debt, but it is rather
irrelevant. It is really no comfort to know that the net debt of society is zero
when there is such an inequitable distribution of assets.
So rich people are more likely to be net lenders and poor people more likely
to be net borrowers, and lending at interest increases inequality. But it makes
more sense to attack that inequality directly by taxing the rich to pay for
decent services for the poor, and managing the economy to ensure that
everyone who wants a paid job can get one. It doesn’t make sense to solve the
problems of inequality by attacking just one of the ways in which rich
people make money (by lending money out at interest), when this is a
legitimate service that borrowers are willing to pay for. Rich people will
usually find new ways to get rich. Surely it is better to encourage them to
share their wealth (through taxation) once they have made it.
Taxing someone after they have got rich through a bad system is like shutting
the stable door after the horse has bolted. The source of the problem is in the
interest system, not the taxation system. It is far better to stop the continual
transfer of money from the poor to the rich in the first place, as in the long run
this prevents problems. Guernsey, for example, in the Channel Islands, has
issued interest­free money since 1816, and as a result has low income tax rates,
no goods and services tax and no capital gains tax.