Debitism

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Debitism is an economic theory founded by Paul C. Martin which assumes that money is defined as a transferable debt relationship (credit) and thus as an obligation instead of as a medium of exchange .

Martin used the term debitism for the first time in 1983 in his book "When does the state bankruptcy come" (Langen-Müller / Herbig). He takes up the early work of the Bremen professors Gunnar Heinsohn and Otto Steiger , which are rooted in post- Keynesianism, and develops their ideas further into a model in which capitalist economic activity is described in analogy to a pyramid scheme .

Debitism is ignored in mainstream academic economics .

theory

Debitism does not regard the national economy as the sum of barter transactions , as it is formulated in neoclassical theory , but as the sum of obligations .

At the core of the model is a description of the process of money creation in today's two-tier banking system between the commercial bank and the central bank .

The formulated debitism today names four groups of debt relationships:

  1. The original guilt (or subsistence obligation) describes the individual's duty to consume for self-preservation . It can be redeemed through production and subsequent self-consumption of what is produced. The original guilt corresponds to the reproduction costs of the working class defined by Marxism , while the neoclassical theory does not define a necessary minimum consumption of the individual.
  2. The religious guilt is the duty of the individual to pay payments to his religious community. It is redeemed through sacrifices or donations to religious authorities. The tithe is one of the oldest forms of religious guilt and is currently levied in Germany in a modified form parallel to the state tax system by the Christian churches. In the event of non-compliance, there is social ostracism or a moral condemnation. In Islam there is a similar tax obligation with the " zakat ".
  3. The contract debt refers to the contractually stipulated debt between contractually capable natural or legal persons after the conclusion of a corresponding debt contract, which must include performance and consideration , deadline and sanction in the event of non-performance (see also: division of labor ). In earlier centuries, the execution of a contract debt often resulted in the debtor's economic and social ruin.
  4. The tax debt refers to the tax burden of the individual , determined by the respective ruler ( ruler , state ) and demanded with the use of or threatened use of force ("coercive power"). The introduction of a state monopoly on the use of force is a prerequisite for charging a tax debt. The required tax good (in Japan it was rice , in Western Europe, according to the bullionist view, it was gold and silver ) is considered legal tender , which can also be used to pay off all other debt obligations. According to the debitist view, the tax debt justifies the compulsion of the individual to offer his self-produced goods or his labor on markets in order to acquire means of payment to pay off his tax debt.

The history and systematics of taxes and duties is a focus of debit research. According to the debitist view, the origin of taxes lies in the tribute of subject peoples, which is converted into tax after taking over the tribute areas or incorporating the tributaries into the original power area.

On the other hand, the existence of the state monopoly on the use of force ( laws , courts , police ) is also an indispensable prerequisite for the functioning of a market economy and justifies property as a state-guaranteed right of possession . In order to finance its exercise of power , the state must, according to the debitist view, borrow in anticipation of future tax debts (“ national debts ”).

In order to pay the taxes and duties set by the ruler, citizens also have to take on private debts. The time difference between the (early) tax date of the citizen and the (late) date of his income explains and justifies the charging of interest for Paul C. Martin . This starts a spiral of debt that can only be interrupted by periodic economic crises and related revolutions .

Such crises are delayed by the fact that modern states are constantly expanding their tax base by privatizing more and more areas (in the USA, for example, even prisons ). In contrast, the element of the threat of state violence in the event of non-fulfillment of the tax requirements decreases sharply.

Debitism rejects the neoclassical exchange concept as well as all macroeconomic models developed from it, e.g. B. the quantity formula including the velocity of the money . Instead, economic transactions are accounted for as borrowing or debt repayment (in particular, trade payables and receivables), which are offset by a corresponding credit accumulation or credit destruction. Money is primarily used to pay debts. The term time plays an extremely important role in debitist theory.

history

The conceptualization of money as a debt relationship or credit, which is in line with the reality of banking business, is not new. Starting with the mercantilist economist James Steuart , there have been a number of economists in the history of economics who have held this view. Mitchell Innes and Johann Philipp von Bethmann should also be mentioned here as other authors who see money as a debt relationship .

swell

  1. ↑ Heinsohn, G./Steiger, O. (1981): Money, productivity and insecurity in capitalism and socialism or from the Lollards Wat Tylers to the solidarity of Lech Walesa. Leviathan 9, 1981, pp. 164-194; Heinsohn, G .: private property, patriarchy, money economy. A social-theoretical reconstruction of antiquity. Frankfurt / M .: Suhrkamp 1984
  2. ↑ Martin, Paul C .: Capitalism - a system that works. Frankfurt / M .: Ullstein 1990, pp. 17, 69
  3. ↑ Enghofer, Stuart & Knospe, Manuel: Debt, Money and Interest - Basic Categories of an Economic Theory ( Memento from October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), University of Bayreuth at the Chair of Institutional Economics, working paper No. 2, 2005, pp. 8–33 (PDF; 816 kB)
  4. ↑ An overview can be found in Charlotte Bruun's dissertation: "Logical Structures and Algorithmic Behavior in a Credit Economy" [1] Chapters 1 [2] and 2: "The Nature of Money" and "The Development of the Theory of Credit" [3]
  5. ↑ Mitchell Innes (1913): "What Is Money?" [4] ; Mitchell Innes (1913): "The Credit Theory of Money" [5]

literature

  • Gunnar Heinsohn (1984): "Private property, patriarchy, money management. A social-theoretical reconstruction of antiquity." Frankfurt / M .: Suhrkamp, ISBN 3-518-28055-4
  • Gunnar Heinsohn, Otto Steiger (2006): "Property, Interest and Money". 4. through Metropolis edition, ISBN 3-895-18587-6
  • Paul C. Martin (1987): "Capitalism - a system that works". Berlin: Ullstein, ISBN 3-548-34629-4 , excerpts also as a PDF file
  • Paul C. Martin (1998): "The crisis swing". ISBN 3-784-47389-X

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