[skybrian]

Or, maybe come up with an alternative to making loans? Why is more debt the only answer? People seem not to want it.

The government could spend the money. Or it could give the money to the people (universal basic income) and they could spend it.

This also fixes the inflation problem. Just don't overshoot.

[ericmuyser]

Living in Japan, I feel like they've naturally developed the culture of changing the color of the sky. I mean to say they always find ways of getting the people to blow cash to keep money circulating. Most companies here have like 3x more staff helping me or standing around than in Canada. Consumerism and state marketing is big too.

[0xffff2]

I'm not any kind of economist, but to me this seems like asking whether the sky really ought to be blue. Reducing the impact of debt (and by extension interest rates) on the economy is every bit as simple as undertaking a massive transforming project to change the color of the sky.

[skybrian]

Yes, anything that requires government action is very hard in practice. But rhetorically, we discount that when talking about whether some government action would be a good idea or not.

[0xffff2]

Who's "we"? I think it's completely reasonable to consider how practical something of this magnitude is. You're not passing a single law; you're talking about fundamentally changing the entire nature of the (US? world?) economy in ways that I find difficult to even comprehend. I'm not even sure any amount of government action would be sufficient to bring it about.

[skybrian]

Sorry, I must have given the wrong impression. To be clearer, I was hinting at either more government spending, universal basic income, or "helicopter money," as alternatives to attempting to stimulate the economy by encouraging more loans. These have precedents and it's not particularly difficult for a government to be efficient at giving people money.