@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social
Post #3632895
2026-07-06 16:45 UTC
Those radically democratic local governments, responsive to their constituents, often responded by pursuing debt erasures, tax avoidance, or issuing paper currency, which everyone at the time understood could depreciate in value, thus lowering the effective amount of everyone’s debt.
This, of course, pleased the vast majority of Americans, who were not wealthy and who were suffering through an economic depression while being forced to finance government handouts to the wealthiest.
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@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social 2026-07-06 16:48
On top of this, recall those promissory notes the Continental Congress had issued to soldiers in lieu of pay. Without any money, those soldiers often sold those promissory notes to wealthy speculators who paid pennies on the dollar. When the war ended, those speculators demanded the US government pay them the full face value—including interest—netting them enormous profits. Former soldiers lost twice, first by having to accept a fraction of the pay owed to them and second by being taxed to finance interest payments to wealthy speculators. 5/