First, let's have some facts and figures; the current amount of outstanding debt in the USA is US$4 trillion. Subtracting mortgages and small business loans, that's US$28,000 for every man, woman and child in the USA. Of course, the burden of debt doesn't fall anything like as evenly as that; women and minorities tend to carry far more of the burden thanks to predatory tactics on the part of the banking industry such as "redlining" and "front-end-loading". But taking the average figure as a ballpark, we can see that if the average US citizen applied his entire post-tax income to debt service on New Year's Day, forgetting all about such niceties as food, clothes and accomodation, he would still be in hock three weeks after next Easter! Forget about Tax Freedom Day, we need to celebrate Debt Freedom Day, except that we can't do that because it doesn't look like we're ever going to get away from the debt burden! In fact, all the burden does is increase, thanks to what sarcastic "investment counsellors" and other glorified loan sharks like to call the "miracle of compound interest". And miracle it is -- if you happen to own a bank.

People of the USA, this is not natural, it's not normal and it's not fair. It's not possible to go about building the Land Of The Free and the Home Of The Brave if you have to go home at the end of the day and worry about how the hell you're going to pay off the latest credit card bill. Do you think that Thomas Jefferson carried a twenty grand student loan? How about Ben Franklin? Would John Hancock have ever put his John Hancock on the Declaration of Independence if he had to spend all his time trying to stop his coach-and-four from being repossessed by the finance company? This financial burden is a depressant on the natural revolutionary spirit of the USA, and it's a savage emotional burden on the average USian. It's a problem for us all, and it's time to solve it.

Make no mistake, this debt problem is a creation of the lenders, not the borrowers. As Malcolm X said in a different context, "We never landed on Plymouth Rock! Plymouth Rock landed on us!". Here's some facts for you:

• Average years education of the average US citizen in 1968: 8.8
• Average years education of the US marketing industry in 1968: 10.5

• Average years education of the average US citizen in 1998: 12.4
• Average years education of the US marketing industry in 1998: 16.8

It doesn't take a rocket scientist (half of whom work in the marketing industry these days anyway) to interpret these figures; the gap between the sophistication of the average USian and the marketing material to which he is exposed has never been larger and is growing every day. Or do you think that the typical US citizen is burdened down with $28,000 of debt because he chose to be that way? Would you choose that kind of life for yourself, if you had the choice? Do you remember ever being offered the choice? That last one's a trick question, because the marketing industry, through its control of the "financial-education complex" made sure that you never were offered that choice. Citizen, you were born to be in debt.

Every year it gets more difficult to live in the USA without a credit card -- the invention of the Net was a big step forward in that regard. Don't want to hand over the sweat of your brow to financial parasites? Well, forget about having a college education, buddy. When the Soviet Union used to keep the children of dissidents out of college, deny them medical attention, make it impossible for them to get an automobile and force them to buy their food in the worst shops in town, we created a hell of a stink and rightly so. But the credit industry does this to us every day and noone seems to care a damn thing about it! Ya Basta, USia, No More!

Some people say that the banks should be punished for creating this unholy, undemocratic mess. That's wrong. Confiscating bank charters and taking people's rightfully owned businesses away from them ain't how we do things in the US of A. And in any case, it's completely unnecessary. All we have to do, is declare independence from our debts. And how do we do that? Easy as pie my friend. Just. Stop. Paying. Them.

What I'm proposing is a one-off, unilaterally declared amnesty, covering credit cards, student loans, auto loans, all forms of consumer credit other than mortgages. It would be perfectly possible without changing the law, it wouldn't cost too much for the banking system (which must realise that half of this debt is never going to be paid off anyway, for the simple reason that it can't be -- that's why they offer you "consolidation loans" in recognition that the only way the average USian pays his interest bill is by taking out a new loan), and it sure as hell would give the country a shot in the arm. We need to say to the banking system that, while they provide (or used to provide) a valuable service, this does not give them the right to take over our lives with their save burden of interest payments and their rinky-dink, mind-games marketing tactics. Doing something about credit card marketing might be a priority for the future -- personally, I can't see how regulation of credit card advertising would be consistent with the First Amendment. But clearly, for now, the most important thing is to lift the dead weight of debt from our democracy. If you'll permit me an analogy, when you've got a monkey on your back, you don't worry about how you're going to clean out the cage you're going to put him, or how much you're going to get when you sell him. Your first thought has to be; how am I gonna get this damn monkey off my back. And the answer always is; smack him upside the head and stop feeding him bananas, you chump. And that, in a manner of speaking, is what I propose that we do to the banking system. Except that they ain't no monkey. They're a ten ton gorilla, and they're sitting on Lady Liberty.

So let's start off with our own Boston Tea Party. When your next interest bill comes through the door, just throw the damn thing in the river. They can't put all of us in their debtors' prisons. And when you're driving down the street in your new debt free new-model Beetle, give a thought to good ol' John Hancock and Sam Adams, won't ya?