[lostcolony]

So there are some noted problems with doing so. Namely, reset starting -when-? At a time of large scale inequality? I.e., millionaire owners of much of NY get locked in as owners for all future generations, and are unable to sell the land, only lease it? Does that lack of salability reduce their economic power sufficiently?

Likewise individuals; for anyone who doesn't own land at the start of the system, is there a path to land ownership?

[hpoe]

Well to be clear I'm not saying we should just take what is directly in the bible and lift and shift it, there would obviously be substantial differences between the implementation now and then. As for the when I would say a regular calander cycle, every 50 years or so. Again this is more of the kernel of an idea than a fleshed out plan.

[lostcolony]

Sure, but those questions have to be answered. Is there a system that guarantees people can own something? Is there a system that prevents it from being inherited? Else you prevent wealth generation for anyone coming to the country anew.

I agree that a reset on the extravagantly wealthy is needed...but that can also just take the form of, say, a wealth tax, without also raising questions on how new people enter the system fairly.

[fennecfoxen]

There's a reason this is just the kernel of an idea. It's because any possible plan you make off it will very quickly make its manifest unfairness obvious.

We aren't living in ancient times, and the distribution of wealth and debt in the world isn't what it used to be. Debt isn't "our crop failed and my family is going to starve this year" anymore.

[mikem170]

It can reset on a schedule. Everybody knows it's coming. It ensures that debt's don't grow so much that they warp other aspects of the economy. I believe it was done in the past to avoid the large scale virtual enslavement of the poor via debt. It was meant to be a relief valve of sorts.

[hnracer]

Interest rates would skyrocket because the default risk of lendees just went up a lot. I'm not a fan of this idea, the debt market will figure out a way to be compensated all the same (or else refuse to provision debt, which is also a bad outcome).