The richest 10% of Americans could pay off the US national debt with less than a third of their wealth. Fair or unfair?

Before you answer the question, consider Jethro’s village.

Imagine an early farming village from 10,000 years ago, where the people are able to grow an excess of food, mainly wheat grain, year after year. There’s enough food for everyone and the chief’s family builds storehouses to store the excess food.

The storehouses full of food help the chief cement his power and increase his status compared to the rest of the people. He brews beer and uses the excess food for grand feasts. Though most of the food is just stored for years, going unused. In fact, every few years, the chief has to build a new storehouse.

After several generations, a new chief starts to borrow excess food from nearby villages and he builds more storehouses to store even more food that he doesn’t need and sits unused.

As he borrowed the food, rather than buying it, he has to pay interest to the other villages. However, he makes the rest of the people in his village pay the interest on the food that they don’t own.

Now, substitute the USA for the village and substitute money for food. That’s how the wealthiest Americans have accumulated almost a third of their wealth. They’ve used their influence over politicians to get the government to borrow money and give it to the wealthy, even though they don’t need it. The government has then forced the rest of the people to pay the interest.

Wealthy Americans will say it’s unfair to make them pay off the debt with money they earned. But they didn’t earn it. If you’re American and not part of the wealthiest 10%, they forged your signature on a loan application and then hid the money under their mattress, while tricking your bank into setting up a monthly payment to pay the interest.

In mid-2025, the wealthiest 10% of Americans had almost $112 trillion while the national debt was about $37 trillion. The debt wasn’t even a third of the wealth owned by the 10%.

Like Jethro’s village never needed to borrow more food, the US never needed to borrow more money.

So is it fair to insist the wealthy use the money they borrowed to pay for the debt they created?

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Click to copy post textBefore you answer the question, consider Jethro’s village. Imagine an early farming village from 10,000 years ago, where the people are able to grow an excess of food, mainly wheat grain, year after year. There’s enough food for everyone and the chief’s family builds storehouses to store the excess food. The storehouses full of food help the chief cement his power and increase his status compared to the rest of the people. He brews beer and uses the excess food for grand feasts. Though most of the food is just stored for years, going unused. In fact, every few years, the chief has to build a new storehouse. After several generations, a new chief starts to borrow excess food from nearby villages and he builds more storehouses to store even more food that he doesn’t need and sits unused. As he borrowed the food, rather than buying it, he has to pay interest to the other villages. However, he makes the rest of the people in his village pay the interest on the food that they don't own. Now, substitute the USA for the village and substitute money for food. That’s how the wealthiest Americans have accumulated almost a third of their wealth. They’ve used their influence over politicians to get the government to borrow money and give it to the wealthy, even though they don’t need it. The government has then forced the rest of the people to pay the interest. Wealthy Americans will say it’s unfair to make them pay off the debt with money they earned. But they didn’t earn it. If you’re American and not part of the wealthiest 10%, they forged your signature on a loan application and then hid the money under their mattress, while tricking your bank into setting up a monthly payment to pay the interest. In mid-2025, the wealthiest 10% of Americans had almost $112 trillion while the national debt was about $37 trillion. The debt wasn’t even a third of the wealth owned by the 10%. Like Jethro’s village never needed to borrow more food, the US never needed to borrow more money. So is it fair to insist the wealthy use the money they borrowed to pay for the debt they created?

Thank you

The richest 10% of Americans could pay off the US national debt with less than a third of their wealth. Fair or unfair? © 2026 by Jethro H. Forclift is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0