Debt Is Bondage

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is: Freedom can be destroyed by debt as easily and quickly as by conquest. Our Founders understood that debt corrupts and disables individuals and nations. They knew that borrowing in a time of emergency is honorable, but they also knew the necessity of repaying debt as quickly as possible. Debt has been described as trading an advantage today for an obligation tomorrow. It requires the payment of the original amount borrowed plus an added amount to compensate the creditor for the use of his money. An individual or nation with excessive debt loses the freedom to choose change or opportunity and pays more for an item than necessary.

Our Founders understood that debt is evil and that frugality is a virtue. They knew that debt is a form of bondage. They avoided debt as if it were a plague because debt causes a loss of spirit as well as a loss of funds. Our Founders understood that national debt was just as evil as individual debt. They also knew that a nation could be forced into a situation such as war when it would need to borrow funds. That is the reason that they wrote an authorization to borrow money in Article I of the United States Constitution. Nevertheless, they knew that freedom from debt and complete solvency is the way to prosperity.

Thomas Jefferson stated, "I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared." (Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:47.)

Our Founders laid down a policy of incurring national debt as seldom as possible and paying off the debt as quickly as possible. They were particularly adamant that their debt should not be passed to their posterity because they wanted freedom for the rising generation - not bondage.

President George Washington was very concerned about the debt of the nation and urged Congress several times to pay off the debt. Just before leaving office, he made a final plea: "Posterity may have cause to regret if, from any motive, intervals of tranquility are left unimproved for accelerating this valuable end."

Every generation of Americans until our generation followed the policy of the Founders. Our slide into debt began when progressives started to dismantle the Constitution and the three branches of government started to overstep their constitutional authority in the era of the Great Depression. The people were told then just as we are being told now, "We have to spend our way out of the problem." It didn't work in the time of FDR, and it won't work in our day. Our national debt to our enemies is now in the trillions of dollars, but our President and Congress continue to spend unnecessary money.

Many Americans are alarmed at the debt and continued spending. They are attending meetings and writing to their representatives in Congress with this message: Stop spending money! Our leaders appear to not be listening to the people; therefore, the people are starting to rise up and vote the big spenders out of office.

I believe that the only way out of our current economical problems is a return to the fundamental principles of our Founding Fathers. The First Principles contain a formula for economical prosperity. This formula can bring our nation out of debt without a major depression or war.

Ideas and quotes for this post came from W. Cleon Skousen in The Five Thousand Year Leap, pp 205-214.