Due to Coronavirus, what if everyone in the world, individuals and businesses alike, were to agree to forgive one another's debts and start fresh?

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I personally would love that. I just bought a condo for $179,000 and a new car for $42,000. If all that debt went away I’d be ecstatic.

My parents would see a nice bump in their finances but nothing to the extent I would. They were smart with their money, way smarter than me, and paid off their mortgages and amassed a nest egg.

My sister would be able to drive around with the car she bought from me last year, so that I could buy my car, but since she never bought a home, that’s would be the extent of the benefit she sees.

Most people in the world are more like my sister than me or my parents. They either aren’t lucky enough to make enough money to where they can take on a lot of debt safely, or they do but live hand to mouth anyway.

Debt forgiveness is thus fundamentally unequal. I’m not going to say it will make things worse, but the main people it’s going to help isn’t going to line up with how much those people need help. The servers who are hit the hardest by this outbreak don’t own, and giving them all their own cars to drive isn’t really going to help that much either.

Whereas people like me, who are lucky enough to have well-paying, stable jobs and thus can afford a much higher debt load, well it would amount to hitting the lottery. I personally would walk away some $250k richer. People who are even better off than me would walk away with even more.