We all know that in the capitalist system individual freedom and independence is directly proportional to our wealth. It is true that democracies governed by this model include formal rights and freedoms in their laws, but when it comes to reality, if they clash with economic interests, they become worthless. Let us take as an example the right to housing, work or health with the recent cases of hepatitis C. Capitalism knows a lot about economic dependence and tries to trap us in it through consumerism, in order to make us more submissive. It is true that this does not work like the law of gravity, but few escape this network.
Let's move now from the individual to the collective level and we will realize that most of our institutions are trapped in the debt network and, therefore, the whole country is. What responds to the same operation, however, has very clear differences. On the individual level, I decide and I assume the consequences. In the collective, no. Some decide, without consulting me, and we all face the consequences. I understand that we can get into debt for vital reasons, but that is not the case. Most of our debt is possibly due to mismanagement: unnecessary infrastructure (airports without planes, highways without cars, perfectly dispensable AVE trains), mismanagement of savings banks, exorbitant salaries of some political and administrative positions, fattening of the administration to attend to clientelism, partisan campaigns disguised with public money, pharaonic works without utility, waste and the ultimate in pure and hard corruption.
Faced with this panorama we can ask ourselves several questions:
Is it essential to get into debt? In my opinion, no, because most of the debt is not due to the satisfaction of the needs of the citizens, but the result of mismanagement. Moreover, I believe that it should be forbidden by law to get into debt, a rule that is already in place for some public bodies. It would only be allowed in cases of extreme need, duly justified, to cure hepatitis C, for example. If it were forbidden to get into debt, it is possible that some neuron in the brains of our rulers would be activated and they would learn to adjust to the resources and not waste them, and in the height of intelligence, the legislators would think of modifying the tax law and take the resources from those who possess them. On the other hand, we would gain our freedom and economic independence and we would not be governed by the markets.
Why do we get into debt? Apart from the mismanagement and the interests of those who lead us to this situation, getting into debt is harmful for the majority, but very profitable for others, among them, possibly, for the same ones who make the decision to get us into debt. Speculative capitalism thus ensures a stable and secure source of income and to have a power that influences policies without running for elections. Moreover, to add insult to injury, it can harm you with your own money and, unintentionally, we are accomplices of all this. Your deposit can be used to screw you, only at the expense of what the bank wants to do with it. I don't know why there is no public bank where we would have the guarantee that my money goes to the real economy and not to the speculative one.
Is there no other choice but to pay the debt? The only thing that has no remedy in this life is death, everything that depends on human will can be done in one way or another. Logically each decision will have its advantages and its disadvantages.
It is obvious that a serious country has to face its commitments, but it would not be bad to do an audit and clarify where everything we owe comes from. If there was really transparency and we knew how the indebtedness has been, more than one, who defend its payment, could be taken away the desire. (Never, of course, for those who benefit from it). On the other hand, there are many less onerous solutions than what the dominant economic thinking says must be done by force. You only have to look at history to see that on many occasions it has not been paid, it has been forgiven, there has been a reduction, it has been renegotiated, etc.
Of course, now a brainy economist will come, put on his expert disguise with his unique thinking and neoliberal capitalism glasses, start using his foreign words, acronyms and figures to confuse us and say that I am an ignorant who knows nothing about economics. But science and knowledge is just another form of domination that the ruling class arrogates to remain in power. To all those economists I can only say that I am tired of listening to them, talking with so much expert discourse, but without giving solutions that eliminate the suffering of so many people. Of course, when the patient cures himself, because he will manufacture his antibodies, they will come to tell us that their measures saved him. Economics has a lot of common sense and that is what they don't want, they prefer their own sense, theirs, the one they call the only way, to make us all go through the hoop.