Debt

[swordfish]

"The term of redemption must be moderate, and at any rate within the limits of [the government's] rightful powers. But what limits, it will be asked, does this prescribe to their powers? What is to hinder them from creating a perpetual debt? The laws of nature, I answer. The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. The will and the power of man expire with his life, by nature's law." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813. ME 13:169

Even 200 years ago smart people knew the inevitable.

[swordfish]

"It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, "never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually and the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith." On such a pledge as this, sacredly observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable interest, all the lendable money of their citizens, while the necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and their constituents against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable consequence, revolution." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles Eppes, 1813. ME 13:269

[KinjaKahn]

Swordfish... ever see the docu-mockumentary on American money, called "Money Masters" It's 3 hrs long and available for free on Google Video. Lot's of interesting quotes from many famous people in recent history.