Editing Henry George (section)

===Bankruptcy protection and an abolition of debtors' prisons===
George noted that most debt, though bearing the appearance of genuine capital interest, was not issued for the purpose of creating true capital, but instead as an obligation against rental flows from existing economic privilege. George therefore reasoned that the state should not provide aid to creditors in the form of sheriffs, constables, courts, and prisons to enforce collection on these illegitimate obligations. George did not provide any data to support this view, but in today's developed economies, much of the supply of credit is created to purchase claims on future land rents, rather than to finance the creation of true capital. [[Michael Hudson (economist)|Michael Hudson]] and [[Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell|Adair Turner]] estimate that about 80 percent of credit finances real estate purchases, mostly land.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/UVQdeb0EdWA Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20180309114848/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVQdeb0EdWA Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |last1=Turner |first1=Adair |title=A new era for monetary policy |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVQdeb0EdWA&t=994 |date=April 13, 2012 |location=Berlin |publisher=INET |access-date=January 15, 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Hudson |first1=Michael |title=Scenarios for Recovery: How to Write Down the Debts and Restructure the Financial System |url=http://nowandfutures.com/large/HowToWriteDownTheDebtsAndRestructureTheFinancialSystem-hudson-michael-berlin-paper.pdf |access-date=January 15, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304080443/http://nowandfutures.com/large/HowToWriteDownTheDebtsAndRestructureTheFinancialSystem-hudson-michael-berlin-paper.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016  }}</ref>

George acknowledged that this policy would limit the banking system but believed that would actually be an economic boon, since the financial sector, in its existing form, was mostly augmenting rent extraction, as opposed to productive investment. "The curse of credit," George wrote, was "... that it expands when there is a tendency to speculation, and sharply contracts just when most needed to assure confidence and prevent industrial waste." George even said that a [[debt jubilee]] could remove the accumulation of burdensome obligations without reducing aggregate wealth.<ref>{{cite web |last1=George |first1=Henry |title=Consequences of a Growing National Debt |url=http://www.cooperative-individualism.org/george-henry_consequences-of-a-growing-national-debt-1888.htm |access-date=January 15, 2016}}</ref>