To ameliorate pain, feel it. What you resist you will persist
Brett Arends lays out the case for national defaults
It’s tempting to say, “if someone borrows money, they should repay it.”
Generally speaking, I agree. I pay all my debts. But while that makes
sense when applied to any individual, it doesn’t work so well when it’s
applied to everyone.
We have tens of millions who cannot repay their debts. But they are all
trying to. That sucks huge amounts of money out of the economy. And that
means these people cannot function properly as consumers or workers.
That’s the reason people aren’t coming into your restaurant. It’s the
reason people aren’t taking your yoga class. It’s the reason they
haven’t hired you to redo the kitchen.
And so tens or hundreds of millions of perfectly responsible business
owners and employees are also suffering from this slump. That’s the
reason we have a shortage of demand. That’s the reason no one is hiring.
Even worse: People who are underwater on their mortgage, but who do not
want to default, cannot move to where the jobs are either. They are
stuck with their home.
