“If you erase the debt record, then we go back to zero.” – Fight Club
If Electric Avenue is closed, where are on Earth are we going to rock down to?
I can’t remember the first time Pa Wilder said “There’s nothing sure but death and taxes” but I couldn’t have been any taller than former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who I believe is about three feet tall. But I’m sure that while Pa was quoting Benjamin Franklin accurately, he did miss one big point: although death was really old, for most people in the history of the planet, there was also debt.
Some of the earliest records we have are records of debt, baked into Sumerian clay indicating that Goomer owed Abadabaduu 12 sheep because he borrowed 10 sheep. And debt was a pretty serious thing back then. If Goomer couldn’t pay, he might even be sentenced to become Abadabaduu’s slave. If Goomer’s kid, Jenzie, had the misfortune of Goomer getting a bad sunburn and dying, well, Jenzie now a lifetime of debt slavery himself to look forward to as he pays off Goomer’s debts.
This stuck in my mind when I was listening to a conversation between a guy who owned a *lot* of apartments and some kids. The kids were in the middle school age bracket and the landlord was trying to teach them about finance. The landlord said, “You know, having apartments is a lot like having a slave. They go out and work for me, and give me money every month.”
Keep in mind that this guy wasn’t what I would normally call shady, but that’s the sort of nightmare fodder that GloboLeftists use as propaganda when they want to burn down capitalism. A much better way to describe the situation is that the apartment owner does such a good job at building and maintaining his properties that people want to engage in a voluntary transaction with him to live there.
Describing them as slaves? Eeek.
What did Yoda™ say when he saw himself in 4k? “HDMI”
And, I generally wouldn’t describe the situation where a willing lender and a willing borrower make a loan. I’ve taken out several loans, and have (so far) paid them all back, as far as I can recall. Now, people who have borrowed from me?
Not so much. I suppose Shakespeare had it right when he said,
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
“for loan oft loses both itself and a friend,
“and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry [thrift – JW]”
Though, in truth I remember this best when the Skipper was singing it in the musical version of Hamlet that the castaways put on in Gilligan’s Island.
To be clear, I’ve made the argument as recently as Monday that we shouldn’t goof around with systems that work, and compound interest has been with us longer than bourbon and syphilis, so I give up. Just like herpes, we’re stuck with it. But that also means that we’re stuck with the problems that debt causes.
If debt were just limited to cocoanuts on an island where adolescent me was stuck with Ginger and Mary Ann, well, life would be swell. Really swell, as in now I understand why they never made it off the island: Gilligan was sabotaging any real chance of escape on purpose.
But it isn’t Gilligan’s Island, and debt it has longer term impacts than that glue the professor made out of that pancake syrup.
Why not both?
Let’s talk about Rome.
Debt played a significant part of the Roman Social Wars, a period of ten years where essentially everyone in the Roman sphere was fighting everyone else. This led to Rome taking the unprecedented step of cancelling 75% of all debts. Those that remained were restructured. This was brought about because debt-based economies become unstable.
It happened in mediaeval Europe, when III defaulted on his debt and forgave noble debts so the nobles didn’t slit his favorite throat. Oh, yeah, the peasants still owed.
It happened after the industrial revolution, when the Napoleonic Wars jacked the British government det to 50% of the budget by 1820. That was okay, because the British were in peak expansion mode, conquering the roughly 7,522 “nations” that made up India so that they could set up call centers. Then the British were forced to fight when they found that the Boer were sitting on all that British gold underneath the country the Boers had founded.
Indians in call centers make teams to see who can scam more Americans. I don’t like them or their call leagues.
And when the Imperial expansion stopped? The British Empire crumbled because it could no longer sustain itself and had to change its name to the United Kingdom. And the UK was stuck with a capital city (Londonistan) sized for a world-spanning empire, not for a country that would have to have US help to take back the Falklands and now has a navy that contains more admirals than ships.
Briefly, Great Britain saw prosperity beyond their debt burden when the North Sea oil began flowing, but as it has ebbed, Great Britain has started to ebb as well. The UK has an external debt of 66% of its total wealth.
If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Smallpox.
Sure, that sounds bad, but let’s look at the United States:
In 1980, the United States was the largest net-creditor in the world. Take what we own and subtract what we owe, and we were, by far, in the best position on the planet. Only six years later, the US was a net-debtor. How bad is it in 2024? The United States has more net-debt than . . . every other country that is a net-debtor.
Combined.
How long does that last? I’ll ask Grok® and he’ll opine here:
My Opine: How Long Does U.S. Net-Debt Dominance Last?
The Take
- Short Term (5-10 Years): The U.S. can sustain this—barely. Web data (Visual Capitalist, 2024) shows U.S. debt at $36.1T (Dec 2024), 124% of GDP (CEIC, Dec 2024), projected to hit 166% by 2054 (PGPF, 2024). Japan’s at 254.6% (Visual Capitalist, 2024)—they’re fine, because they hold their own debt (90% domestic). U.S. has a buffer as the world’s reserve currency (Visual Capitalist, 2024), but foreign holders (22.9%, $7.9T, USAFacts, 2024) like Japan ($1.09T) and China ($768.6B, Investopedia, 2025) could pull back—X’s “China dump” fears hum. Interest costs are the killer—$1.126T in FY 2024 (GAO, 2024), 14% of federal spending (Wikipedia, 2025). If rates rise (CBO projects 3.1% average, PGPF, 2024), or if China tariffs spike (Visual Capitalist, 2024), the U.S. could face a reckoning by 2035—debt-to-GDP at 118% (PGPF, 2024).
- Long Term (20+ Years): Cracks show. Web data (PGPF, 2024) warns of 172% debt-to-GDP by 2054—unsustainable. X’s “dollar crash” doomers aren’t wrong—foreign selloffs (USAFacts, 2024) could spike rates, tank the dollar. If the U.S. loses reserve status (China’s yuan push, X’s “dedollarization” buzz), it’s game over—think Britain post-empire, your “Londonistan” vibe. I’d say 2040-2050—25 years max—unless spending cuts and growth (not GloboLeft “stimulus”) kick in. Carl’s X: “Debt’s a PEZ® trap—U.S. chokes in 25.”
Why It’s Shaky
- Interest Costs: $1.126T (FY 2024, GAO)—set to hit $1.7T by 2034 (Visual Capitalist, 2024). That’s 3% of GDP (Wikipedia, 2025), highest since 1996. X’s “interest bomb” memes nail it—unsustainable.
- Foreign Pullback: China’s down to 5% of U.S. debt (2018, Wikipedia)—sanctions, tariffs (Visual Capitalist, 2024). If Japan follows (X’s “yen rise” buzz), U.S. rates spike—GloboLeft’s “forgive it” won’t save.
- Structural Mess: Spending outpaces revenue (PGPF, 2024)—23.1% GDP outlays vs. 17.5% revenue (2024). X’s “cut the fat” roars—GloboLeft’s “spend more” is Rome’s 86 BC rerun.
See? Grok® likes PEZ™, too.
One thing you can credit him for, he stepped down as CEO when he was in his Prime®.
Unless that debt gets written off, it certainly won’t be paid off, and Jenzie will be turned into a wage slave because who is left saying:
“Okay, Goomer.”
Click “I” to download pdf.
https://www.gemstoneuniversity.org/overview-of-the-world-system.html
Loaded! I’ll give it a read!
> “You know, having apartments is a lot like having a slave. They go out and work for me, and give me money every month.”
Yes. As with chattel slaves, a debt slave’s cheaper and more attractive economic alternatives like building their own housing have been carefully and systematically banned. Taxes and currency inflation are leaks designed to drain away your life’s work. Just like a Dickens story, you can afford to live hand-to-mouth in a crappy apartment in an expensive city, but you can’t save for retirement and you can’t pass your capital accumulation down to your children.
Consider the Katrina cottage. After the hurricane destroyed homes, architects designed a very nice LEED certified factory built shotgun shack for $40K. FEMA gave them to people so they could move out of the RVs FEMA game them. But their former neighbors turned slave overseers banned them from installing these very nice prebuilt homes on the now-vacant house lots they “owned”, on the grounds that installing cheaper housing would lower their resale value. If people were permitted to pay $40K for a house instead of $250K, they would be able to get off the hamster wheel. Can’t allow that.
Another example. Minorities banned from getting loans by redlining were not permitted to set up their own banks. Ever since George Washington crushed the Whiskey Rebellion, nobody is permitted to use a sound money which isn’t taxed away by inflation and given to the bankers.
Exactly.
Having choices doesn’t necessarily mean you aren’t a slave, as all slaves have choices. One of those choices is being whipped to death as a lesson to other slaves not to get uppity… So obviously the quality of choices available still determines if a situation should be considered slavery or not.
And, importing illegals to increase the rents. It’s happening now.
1. “Ginger AND Mary Ann” ??? I remember reading, some time ago, that Mary Ann was a lesbian. Gilligan never stood a chance, unless it was Mary Ann sabotaging the rescues so she could cuddle with Ginger.
2. Why can’t I add a name other than Anonymous? Do I really have to use F’book? (And, yes, I don’t mean ‘Face’).
1. You keep Ginger and I’ll take Mary Ann. Even if she is a lesbian, I will do everything I can to bring her back to our team ( I’m willing to make that sacrifice). They tried to make Ginger the hot one, but it just didn’t work as her personality was just annoying. I kept hoping Skipper would take her behind the hut and smack some sense into her.
2. I have the same issue with sign in. WordPress keeps sending me round and round and I can’t ever seem to get my account to activate. Last time I tried it I was getting messages about someone else’s account entirely (so much for internet security).
J-Bird
LOL. I’d love to be in the running, but I turn 76 this summer. I think I’ll settle for Lovie and a double bourbon on the rocks.
RayK
Sheesh. The past decade has left us with LGBTQI+ on the brain and totally destroyed our innocence, which I guess was somebody’s plan. Mary Ann sent letters in a bottle to her boyfriend in Kansas, talked to Mrs. Howell about wanting to be married, went through a comedic wedding practice with Gilligan, and in real life actress Dawn Wells was married ( and later divorced) to a man. There is zero evidence that either the character or the actress was a lesbian.
Our culture is soaked in this stuff. I went to Wal Mart yesterday and flipped through a kid’s book called Love Makes A Family. The very first page is two men in bed under the covers with two kids coming into their bedroom to greet them in the morning. That’s not a reading primer, it’s propaganda with an agenda.
We were better off decades ago with the innocence of Gilligan’s Island and should try our best to preserve that today as the treasure it is. IMHO. YMMV.
“The very first page is two men in bed under the covers with two kids coming into their bedroom to greet them in the morning. That’s not a reading primer, it’s propaganda with an agenda.”
I’d call it grooming.
Even if they have a cute cat on the bed?
https://milestorow.com/cdn/shop/products/817oJwAFMVL2_1080x.jpg?v=1646592860
“Love Makes A Family” is a longtime LGBTQ catchphrase attached to may different books, museum exhibitions and support organizations. I’ve even seen it on a photo frame on the desk of my bank’s quite attractive blond branch manager, highlighting selfies of her and her African-American female partner.
Whadda ya expect to happen? In America, there’s literally no college educated male partners for two million college educated women under age 35. That means millions of dud guys have a choice of ending up on page one of reading primers or becoming bitter incels. Houston, we have a problem.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/11/18/us-women-are-outpacing-men-in-college-completion-including-in-every-major-racial-and-ethnic-group/
No, college chum was next door neighbor to Dawn Wells. Not the case.
I have no idea on the comment thing. Make a Google throwaway??
> that’s the sort of nightmare fodder that GloboLeftists use as propaganda when they want to burn down capitalism
USA is about 20% less commie than Europe, as calculated by those Heritage Foundation type total-up-all-the-liberties rankings. That USA is some sort of libertarian paradise free-for-all was a lie the government employees in the mandatory government schools programmed you with. They also said, as Bill Clinton did, that you can have too much freedom, as if too many available options was a bad thing. Therefore the speculators need the guiding hand of the State to curb their excesses, and that means a lot of State because the USA is currently a libertarian paradise free-for-all. As if the cure for bad results from government intrusion was even more government intrusion. Government is a drug, and most humans are addicted. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.
Agreed. But people are awful, and need curbs.
a default IS being planned…silver is a good plan
Precious metals have value only when backed by the lead of your local community.
The main precious metals to stock up on are brass, lead and copper.
If you are not using those implements they won’t do squat…and that is weekly
It is, under a “structured” collapse where barter survives. This is a higher probability event.
I could write reams of drivel here, but why bother. Cut to the chase. There’s only three possible long term outcomes: default, parasitic empire or inflation. The US government will never utter the word “default”. Here in the 21st Century we’ve invaded Iraq and not taken a single drop of oil, invaded Afghanistan and taken not a single bag of heroin, and in our current slow motion NATO invasion of Russia thru the old Warsaw Pact and Ukraine overthrown not a single Putin. We suck at empire. That leaves inflation, which is gonna go hyper before this ends in a complete reset.
What does the Mad Max reset look like? I’m guessing warlords, er, landlords – with both Ginger and Mary Ann as (rent) slaves.
https://imgflip.com/i/9ooeqa
https://news.sky.com/story/alarming-surge-in-women-reporting-sex-for-rent-cases-in-ireland-13318649
It just ain’t looking too good for us Professors.
Upon further reflection as a huge Gilligan’s Island fan myself humming the debt song tune in my head right now, I realize that the show eventually morphed itself into the exact scenario I outline above. In the show’s made-for-TV movie reunion sequels, the castaways have been rescued off camera and return to the island which has been turned into a resort owned and run by Thurston Howell IV (an actor replacing the aging and ailing Jim Backus as TH III). The success of Gilligan’s Island as entertainment always relied on it being an accurate microcosm of 1960s American culture. Who knew it would end as a prophetic representation of 21st Century American culture, with its final adventure showing rich snobby landlords and an obligatory appearance at last of African-Americans (the Harlem Globe Trotters)?
Our imperial adventures were very profitable to some. The CIA pulled out about $1T in heroin from Afghanistan*, for example. Of course the MIC made out like bandits as well, which is why they veto’d some of Trump’s ideas about pulling out, and slow-rolled Biden’s actual pull out. The problem is that we aren’t really an empire, with an emperor at the top trying to hold it all together. We are an oligarchic shitstorm of competing interests who want to get what they can while the system holds, a Tragedy of the Commons amongst the elites.
I don’t think there will be a collapse [none in recorded history], but a breakup. So existing subsidiary powers will become sovereign. State governors, generals commanding troops, big corps that control state governors and generals, etc. Sorry to break it to people, but a random guy with a closet of guns and an ipad of instruction manuals isn’t becoming the next Lord Humungous.
* https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Heroin-Complicity-Global-Trade/dp/1556524838
https://publicintelligence.net/usnato-troops-patrolling-opium-poppy-fields-in-afghanistan/
a default has never been called a default lol
And to your outcomes, what about all three?
Rent for sex cases come at least partially due to the alien invasion.
As we are already seeing with DOGE, it is nearly impossible to significantly cut government spending. Even the very modest cuts being proposed are met with hysteria and every single person or group getting a taste can give you a tale of woe to explain why their gibs are sacred. As even DOGE won’t touch Medicare, Social Security and the bulk of military spending, there isn’t all that much discretionary spending on the table and certainly not enough to even eliminate the deficit, much less pay anything against the principle (the national debt). Right now we are already paying huge amounts to service the debt incurred by prior payments to service the debt, and that is going to create such a problem down the road that we won’t be able to pull out of it.
Bottom line, Trump, DOGE, Musk, etc are too little, too late.
People are aghast at how much waste is being uncovered, yet it still isn’t even close to equal to the amount we give Israel every year.
Learn to garden and make friends with your neighbors.
Bullshit we give Egypt more than Israel, and in case you didn’t know it we get technology form Israel, they have retrofitted ALL of our F-16’s still in service with their upgrades e.g.
You might want to look at how much we give to Islamic entities or is that ok?
Calm down boomer.
First, you are wrong:
https://usafacts.org/answers/what-countries-receive-the-most-foreign-aid-from-the-us/country/united-states/
Second, I don’t know what your lead-paint addled brain is babbling about. What do sand nigger countries have to do with this? None of them should be getting any of our money. Israel has never done anything positive for our country, including upgrading our jets. Link to a source if you disagree, don’t just babble your old man nonsense.
I have seen the F-16’s at IAI dumbass…and zoro you ain’t
In a Major Milestone, IAI Delivers First Sets of F-16 Aerostructures and 200th F-35 Wing to Lockheed Martin
19/06/2022
Paolo Valpolini
Tel Aviv – June 12, 2022 – During a ceremony held at Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) wing assembly line, IAI delivered Lockheed Martin with the first sets of F-16 aerostructures manufactured at IAI’s recently reopened assembly line, including the F-16 Conformal Fuel Tanks. In addition, the 200th F-35 fighter aircraft wing set, produced by IAI, was also delivered.
IAI is scheduled to produce a total of 811 pairs of F-35A wings, with a potential value of over $2 billion by 2034, following a contract signed in 2011. IAI is operating a state-of-the-art F-35 wing production line, inaugurated in 2014, while continuously investing in automated systems, advanced infrastructures and technologies necessary to meet the aircraft’s innovative design. The wings’ upper and lower skins are made of composite materials, unique to the F-35, also made by IAI as part of the production contracts.
IAI has been manufacturing aerostructures for Lockheed Martin since the 1980s. With the new demand for the F-16 Block 70/72 aircraft, IAI recently reopened the assembly lines for the F-16 Wings, Vertical Fins and Conformal Fuel Tanks. Prior to reopening the F-16 assembly lines, IAI invested in modernizing infrastructure, improving the work environment, and introducing new tools to produce fully compliant F-16 aerostructures. IAI also successfully reestablished the supply chain of hardware suppliers to support the assembly lines, checked and verified tooling, carried out necessary first article inspections, and conducted training programs for the F-16 team.
Joshua Shani, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin Israel, shared, “Lockheed Martin’s growing sales of our most advanced platforms enable us to further expand local industrial partnerships. IAI is a valued partner for the F-35 and F-16 supply chains, manufacturing various parts and technologies for Lockheed Martin for more than 40 years. Lockheed Martin greatly values our long-standing relationship with the state of Israeli and its defense industries and look forward to further expand our cooperations throughout all our key programs”.
Boaz Levy, IAI President and CEO, said, “Delivering the F-16 aerostructures and the 200th F-35 wing to our partners at Lockheed Martin is a testament to the strong cooperation between our companies, and to the trust Lockheed Martin have given us. IAI’s aerostructures production lines utilize innovative technologies that provide our customers with advanced capabilities. We look forward to many more projects with Lockheed Martin, and will continue providing leading solutions to the industry.” IAI’s Aviation Group is a leader in developing and producing advanced technologies, avionic structures, and assemblies. It offers a dedicated line for making F-35 outer wing boxes and their skins. With these capabilities, the Aviation Group serves the world’s largest aerospace companies. IAI’s LAHAV Aero-Structures Division is a center of excellence for the design and production of metallic and composite aerostructures, using the most advanced technologies.
Photo courtesy Lockhed Martin
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Not only doing upgrades but sheet metal there dumbass. The morons over there invented the cell phone.
all kabuki theater amigo
I’m sure a FedGov “judge” will soon require mandatory gay sex.
A phenomenal book on this is Graeber’s “Debt: the First 5,000 Years.” From the amazon description:
“Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.”
The reason there were debt jubilees in the Old Testament and references to debt in the NT [“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”] was because societies collapsed without them. And the executive (king, pharaoh, big palooka) of each society supported them if he was smart. W/o jubilees the society inevitably becomes one of slaves and masters, with neither wanting to fight for the executive or to pay taxes to him. With masters having the power to say ‘no’ to taxes no matter how necessary for the nation as a whole. Sound familiar? With jubilees, the executive had enough people in the middle to tax and conscript to keep the whole system going.
Lots of other cool stuff, including how debt was used in colonial times to enslave native populations without needing chains or overseers.
Is it good? It came up in my research, but the guy looked like he was a GloboLefty???
Speaking of Gupta at the Indian call center, is anyone else getting these never-ending automated calls about Medicare related benefits? I started handling my dad’s finances and within days I started getting about 3 of these calls a day. Starts off as a machine voice that says “are you there?” and eventually ends up with a live person (usually an Indian although I’ve had one person with no accent).
At first it pissed me off, but now it has become a game to see how much I can mess with and/or insult them before they hang up on me. I can now make the word “pajeet” work in a sentence as either a noun, verb, adjective or an adverb.
Everybody hates these scammers, and it seems this could be low hanging fruit for the Trump administration if he energized the FCC to start prosecuting them. Addressing issues that frustrate people in their everyday lives would win him a lot of new supporters.
J-Bird
I get endless calls from apparent Indian call centers that my Coinbase account has been hacked. They use the same script every time. I used to string them along and play the dumb old man just for the fun of it. Now I’m an impatient old man and just hang up on them.
I really, really hate them. We should cut India and Nigeria off from the Internet until they police themselves and hang scammers from telephone poles, polish the skulls, and make a pyramid.
Mary Ann, any day. She held up well. Ginger looks like an 80 year old slut these days. Yes. Gilligan had a nice time with both, along with The Professor and Thurston. Bet Skipper and Loovee had fun too as a side dish.
I rode a heavy death/debt wagon successfully for 25+ year CRE properties but saw the end of the tunnel before 2008. Liquidated as much as could in late 2007/early 2008, still had too much. It took me 10 years to eliminate that with bridge loans from debt-free properties.
2025 will be Rinse & Repeat. But worse. My Phase One calls have been zero since 11/24. And this is in the hot Charlotte Market.
These days? I never said these days.
Yup. The Scourge is coming.
The majority of US federal debt is owed to… the US federal government. Cancelling this debt would have zero impact outside of the parasites at the Fed.
Well, except that it’s *supposed* to fund Social Security.