The Worm in the Apple by Stephen Cook VANISHING DEBT
Oppressive levels of individual, business and government debt likewise penalize our efforts to become more productive. Arising from the fact that money is supplied to the economy as debt, interest payments on such borrowing amount to a toll or tax we must pay for using our own means of exchange. Each time we use such money - that is, electronic, check or credit card money, we pay a fee for the privilege and so it costs us money to use our money! The only money that does not cost us money when we use it is notes and coins because this is supplied free of such tolls by the government. After reform, all money will operate as government-supplied notes and coins do at present, in that it will carry no debt burden and we will be charged no toll for the privilege of using it. It is unlikely that all borrowing will cease, particularly for larger consumer items, but the level and frequency of borrowing will drastically decline. Any rise in the general level and cost of borrowing, either by the consumer or industry, would be taken as an indicator of a possible under-supply of money which the government would be expected to scrutinize and, if proven necessary, correct. The practice of so-called Fractional Reserve Lending will have ceased or been phased out and what borrowing remains in a post-reform economy will be of already existing money. It should in fact become possible for people to save over a manageable number of years, the money required to buy their own homes.
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