I know I’m probably being stupid, and that there’s some good, practical reason why this is not possible, but what’s stopping the world from just forgetting about all these economic issues? As far as I can see, they have no basis in any physical reality but are essentially fiction. Stock exchanges, exchange rates – aren’t they all just extremely complex games people play? If that is so, what’s to stop us from all deciding to start again, to say ”hey, this is getting silly” and wiping the slate clean? Why not forget about who owes what to whom? at the end of the day, everyone owes everyone else something: Germany says greece owes it billions, but Germany owes Greece billions from the war. Given that so many people are suffering due to these financial constructs, why can’t we just cut the crap, se it as the bullshit it is and wipe the slate clean. It seems absurd to me that people are dying due to what are essentially fictional constructs. When I go to the shop, for example, I give people money in exchange for goods; but what is money? It’s just pieces of paper and chunks of metal; it only has value because we collectively say it as value. When the guy in the shop gives me my goods, he only expects me to give him money in return due to a shared social convention. Given that convention has no physical basis – ie, no external cause – why can’t we, in certain circumstances, agree to suspend it? while one should usually pay debts, if so many people are suffering due to this crisis, why can’t we just forget about it.