Empathy Economics

Let’s have a worldwide debt jubilee

Compound interest is said to be "the most powerful force in the universe."

As a species, we are so used to the idea of debt we don’t blink an eye about it. The idea of NOT having debt would be something. We are the only species that is charged rent solely for living on 🌏.

It goes back to the idea of money. Money is a social concept. People literally invented money. We can’t escape money because it is all around us. We can use money to value how much stuff we own, money makes it easier to trade, money can be exchanged for goods and services later on, and we can use money to track what we owe other people. Foreign money can be converted into local money for local use, money can be distributed however society chooses, money can be created with a printing press or backed with assets, and a very unique attribute of money is we can use it to calculate interest payments if we give someone a bunch of money upfront.

No one ever asks the question if the last idea makes sense for the Earth and the people living on it. The idea of exponential growth on a planet with limited resources makes zero sense. The growth of money tied to interest payments contributes to unsustainable exponential growth by burning fossil fuels as energy for the growth. As Europe and Canada see this summer from widespread wildfires, sometimes causing lightning storms from cumulonimbus flammagenitus or pyrocumulonimbus clouds, and extremely hot temperatures in China, Japan, India, and Africa, exponential growth comes with a heavy cost.

image france24 (1)

What’s the point of this philosophical discussion? People need to have debates on debt, when it is acceptable, when it is not, how long it lasts, how much is charged for it, and whether this is a good use of money. Those debates at the foundational level are lacking.

Let’s have a global debt jubilee!

Let me put the boldest debt elimination solution out front: A debt jubilee. Not just a small debt jubilee, a worldwide debt jubilee. A jubilee can be a joyful event, a celebration, a special anniversary, or commemoration. Jubilation comes from combining joyful celebration and is derived from jubilee. A worldwide debt jubilee would cancel the government, corporate, and private debts of all countries. Done carefully to promote responsibility rather than aiding corruption, it can be a powerful tool to promote equality. Imagine how much joy would be released if the world had no debt? Sure the transnational criminals of the Epstein Class would cry so much they would dehydrate and die, but is that really so bad?

I can hear the but… but… but… that would ruin the economy!!! Mate, it would turbocharge the world’s economy. It would allow laws to be passed to clear financial rent seeking and exploiting common resources for good. We’d have to make some other changes to make it work for everyone but everything is in the people’s power to do.

Given that we are doing our damnedest to turn Earth into Venus, we could refocus our efforts on solving the climate crisis that is savaging the world. We can use this as a powerful opportunity to reduce wealth inequality. Let the ancient Indus civilization of Mohenjo-Daro be our guide. (2)

As Mohenjo-daro prospered, the gap between its richest and poorest households actually shrank. Its shared infrastructure, fair trade systems, and lack of powerful royal elites suggest that equality may have helped fuel theancient city’s success.

This city lasted 4,000 years old, which is more than New York City, Paris, Rome, Beijing and Tokyo currently. A stable place that lived and grew over millenia.

According to the lead author Dr. Adam Green:

Instead of gold-filled tombs and huge temples, Mohenjo-daro focused on sophisticated brick-lined drains and organized street layouts. Instead of allowing the perks of society to accumulate with a tiny elite, the city's amenities were widely distributed amongst the everyday households.

Boom! Fuck you capitalism! Boom! Fuck you, billionaire wealth hoarders! Fuck the way off, trickle-down economics!

Back to the idea of a global debt jubilee. Lyn Alden (3) gives a fantastic example of Solon and a partial debt jubilee in Athens, which saved the city in the 6th Century BC. The whole piece is fascinating.

Good sense prevailed; moderate elements secured the election of Solon, a businessman of aristocratic lineage, to the supreme archonship. He devalued the currency, thereby easing the burden of all debtors (although he himself was a creditor); he reduced all personal debts, and ended imprisonment for debt; he cancelled arrears for taxes and mortgage interest, he established a graduated income tax that made the rich pay at a rate twelve times that required of the poor; he reorganized the courts on a more popular basis; he arranged that the sons of those who had died in war for Athens should be brought up and educated at the government’s expense.

Let us keep in mind that financial debt is only money that is owed at a future date. And most money is now digital or electronic in nature. Solon devalued the physical currency to make it easier for debtors to pay. We don’t need to devalue the currency to achieve a global debt jubilee. We simply wipe out the debt value and replace it with electronic money. After all, most debt exists on an electronic ledger someplace. We make sure the poorest in society get some extra electronic bucks, those in the middle a bit less, and the rich very little extra. We do this while raising the minimum wage to a living wage, providing universal healthcare, universal child care, and universal education through law. I like Solon’s example of charging the rich 12x more than the poorest person. We should bring it back for the income and wealth of the villionaires. Our entire foundation of money and debt is based on agrarian economics. It is time to modernize it for 21st Century Empathy Economics.

Appendix

Ranked: The World’s Most Indebted Countries Today (4)

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Top 10 Countries Africa Owes the Most Money To - And How These Debts Were Built (5)

  1. United States & Other Traditional Western Creditors via Multilateral Role
  2. China
  3. World Bank Group - Institutional Anchor and Major Creditor
  4. Private International Lenders - A Growing Burden
  5. International Monetary Fund (IMF) - The Balance-of-Payments Backstop
  6. European Union & Other European Nations - Mixed Creditors
  7. United States
  8. Saudi Arabia
  9. France
  10. Japan

(1) Wildfires: The ominous “fire clouds” or “pyrocumulonimbus” seen in France for the first time. (2026, July 27). France 24. Retrieved August 2, 2026, from https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260727-what-are-fire-clouds-pyrocumulonimbus-observed-france-for-the-first-time

(2) This 4,000-year-old city defied the rules of history. (2026, July 26). ScienceDaily. https://sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260729010730.htm

(3) Alden, L., & Alden, L. (2023, March 19). How Debt Jubilees work. Lyn Alden. https://www.lynalden.com/debt-jubilee/

(4) Cohen, G. (2026, March 2). Ranked: The world’s most indebted countries today. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-most-indebted-countries-today-q4-2025/

(5) Kuchio, N. (2026, February 17). Top 10 countries Africa owes the most money to - and how these debts were built. The African Exponent - Africa Measured. https://www.africanexponent.com/top-10-countries-africa-owes-the-most-money-to-and-how-these-debts-were-built/

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