N11: Public Extensions

America is strongest when we are able to adapt to change. We can pull in new people and draw on new resources. We can also flex America’s power through extensions of credit. Let’s call all the ways we stretch America’s capacity our Public Extensions. We rely on Public Extensions to stay flexible and achieve new balance through big changes.

We can flex the power of Public Extensions in plenty of ways. We can welcome immigration and expand the use of public property. We can take on public debt, increase the amount of money in circulation, and offer public loans.

We can also exercise Public Extensions to provide public options for credit when private credit isn’t doing the job. We can use Public Extensions to spread the costs of big projects over many years. We can flex Public Extensions to handle anything unexpected, from a pandemic to a war to a major change in technology, like AI or renewable energy.

But to keep flexibility for the future, we can’t let America get overextended.

Americans know that our bloated national debt is a gross misuse of Public Extensions. Too many of those tens of trillions of dollars of debt has been used to put off problems and avoid hard decisions. We are leaving our kids a legacy of debt. We are limiting America’s ability to respond and adapt to future change.

Who benefits most from this extreme debt? Elite, entitled Counts in the Counting Class. Each time we increase our national debt, we supply more money for Counts to target and collect. Each time we rely on borrowing instead of reclaiming our Public Gains, we leave even more in the hands of Counts.

When Counts continue to pile up extreme Money Counts, Americans pay the price. Much less money is available to renew our Public Investment, Public Knowledge, and Public Resources. There’s pressure to raise taxes higher on the wealth and income of the Contributing Classes. And we have to take on far more debt. Out-of-control Free Income to Counts throttles equal opportunity, pushes up taxes, and drives out-of-control debt.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Americans can solve the paired problems of extreme money and extreme debt. We can trim back extreme Money Counts, reclaim the Public Gains of America, and pay down our national debt.

Public Extensions have juiced the extreme Money Counts of the Counting Class. But now that the bill is coming due, Counts make exit plans and pursue new targets. They even push an agenda to replace our US dollar with their own “crypto” money. When Counts try to take over the power of our Public Extensions, Americans can say “no.”