No silly. One acquires past debt by not paying in the future. As soon as taxpayers find out that if you don’t pay your taxes that it will be forgiven, nobody will pay their taxes.
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Sounds good. We can all live whatever lifestyle we like for free.
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It’s not hard to understand. A third grader could tell you that to become a member of that subset all you have to do is not pay your taxes.
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This would be a totally different thing, but still following the same principle:
I would consider offering immigration amnesty to anyone who is already here. (In effect, a past “debt”.) But we know (yes, we know) that it would only encourage even more illegal immigration, and we know (yes, we know) that there would be massive political effort to continue that amnesty for ongoing “newcomers”.
And it becomes “past debt” when that future debt is under discussion at some future time beyond the “future” when it was actually accumulated.
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I’m sure we all have heard the “debt relief” commercials. “The credit card companies are tricking you into believing you have to pay it off.”
For kicks I called to see how it works.
All the debt you want erased goes into one bucket that the debt relief company manages. You pay them an amount that is some amount less than you were previously paying to all the respective creditors. Debt Relief company does NOT pay those creditors. They keep that money. (They’re totally up front about that.) Eventually your credit tanks. Debt Relief company manages the collections activity launched against you. Once the situation is so messy-hopeless to the creditors, the creditors negotiate with the Debt Relief company. Some write off the debt. Some slash the balance. At that point there is a big pool of money from you the Debt Relief company is holding. Some algorithm of activity happens that takes some of the money in that pool to satisfy the slashed balances. You keep paying the contracted monthly payment to finish off any remaining balances, and within a few years from the time you started, you’ve eliminated all the debt far faster than you would have (and for less in payments over that time) than you would have had you just kept paying on your own.
The cost to you is a trashed credit rating, but that heals itself over time once it’s all done. No bankruptcy.
Certainly when my library waived all late fees the public did not raid the library and immediately loot every book from the shelves.
I have not been there in a while, but there were still books her last time I checked.
They same things would happen regarding tax debt.
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That’s a hypothesis.
The following is fact:
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By 2003 the federal gov’t alone was placing tax liens against a half million properties per year and the cumulative total is probably several million at present. Allowing those properties to be brought to market will help relieve the real estate problem the nation currently faces
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Joe Biden, in an action opposed by conservatives added 87,000 IRS agents including 30,000 whom no one in either party called a “replacement.” Their job no doubt is to increase the amount of money the gov’t will call “tax debt.” It would be contrary to conservative principles to suddenly support all the work they’ve done as necessary and proper.
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Unlike forgiving student loans of poetry majors and medical debt of persons who decided to take unwarranted risks rather than secure a job with benefits, forgiving tax debt would not add any new amounts to the debt or deficit.
I suggested this half as sarcasm, but now I am beginning to like the idea.
Interesting, thanks for posting that.
Interesting but weird-sounding book recommendation.
If you want to learn more about ancient Rome, especially the
“Populares” and debt cancellation, a really good painless place to start is here:
This is an 18-minute video setting the context for the fall of the Republic and the rise of Caesar. It was written long before our current politcal/economic mess, does not at all attempt to make comparisons to modern politics, Biden etc…
Just plain old history.
The team has put together a very long string of 5- to 18-minute videos like it
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On my to watch list. Thanks.
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Heavy, man!
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That’s a false comparison. Being given forgiveness for late fees does not transfer ownership of the books to the patron.
