If Congress does not tackle our $20 trillion debt, it is a mathematical certainty that economic disaster will follow – it’s only a question of when. And our politicians, who out of political cowardice and self-interest refuse to address this looming threat today, will only make the debt crisis worse when it strikes. In fact, there is a strong case to be made that the American political Left would see tremendous opportunity in a debt crisis. The threat of imminent economic collapse is a great excuse for a socio-economic “reset,” which would open the door wide to a massive redistribution of wealth. Such fear-induced socialism will be justified under the rubric of “social justice.” Social justice is a term that’s hard to define, but it is a potent force in politics and markets. It’s at the heart of the progressive orthodoxy in America. And it’s a fallback talking point for any leftwing policy that involves the government subordinating the rights of the individual to the “collective good.” In practice, it means the Democrat-Left can toss private property, enforcement of contracts, and the very rule of law itself aside in favor of “what is fair.” This is even more true during an economic panic. Accepting – or rooting for – economic crisis is counterintuitive, to be sure. With another recession or even depression, hundreds of millions of Americans would suffer. The suicide rate, based on historical data, would skyrocket. Homes would be lost and businesses destroyed. And this time, the despair will be livestreamed on Facebook,
which in turn would exacerbate the political instability. Yet a pandemic of financial pain would provide an enormous opportunity for the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. The masses will clamor for scapegoats and financial bogeyman... and the Leftists and a complicit media will gladly point fingers. The public will not want to hear lectures about irresponsible spending on Medicare or the gargantuan growth in the welfare state over the last 50 or so years. The playbook for the Left in a debt crisis will be unrestricted class warfare. That means that “fat cat” bankers, greedy corporations, and anyone who has been too successful or advocating free market principles too loudly in public will become targets. And the solution will be – you guessed it! – more government. The poor financial decisions of the past will be blamed entirely on the reviled “1%.” For the other 99%, there will be a laundry list of excuses for every mistake made along the way. Drowning in $50,000 of student debt? Well, college should have been free anyway. Ran up $20,000 in credit-card charges? You deserve all that stuff that you can’t remember you bought. Signed on the dotted line for a subprime car loan? Lenders should have known better than to trust you. Suckers. When the crisis comes, trillions of dollars of government and household debt will become somebody else’s fault, and their responsibility.
In practice, it means the Democrat- Left can toss private property, enforcement of contracts, and the very rule of law itself aside in favor of “what is fair.”
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