ABSTRACT

Capitalist production is typically undertaken with the motive of accumulating the form of currency or bank deposit. Thus debt is required as a vital ingredient in capitalist production, without which we could not satisfy our material needs. For this argument to be sound, it must be the case that production, undertaken within the current monetary system, is needed for supplying the goods of common life. Production within the current monetary system is, in my view, the best that we can do. Bentham and Turgot were right to argue that debts, often risky debts with high accompanying rates of interest, can be necessary in order to sustain growth in production at a level that maintains or increases human comfort. Large debts can be taken on without any resulting increase in production. We gave the name 'abusury' to this form of non-productive debt.