Knowledge Tree
public debate
Also known as: public debt, national debt
Facts (11)
Sources
Ottobah Cugoano on British Slavery, National Debt, and Speculative ... jmphil.org Jan 24, 2025 10 facts
perspectiveOttobah Cugoano argues that public debt creates conflicting interests where stockholders benefit from war, while others suffer, leading to a precarious situation for the nation.
claimAdam Smith observes that European rulers in each generation deepen public debt rather than alleviating it, viewing this as an unavoidable consequence of constant crisis.
referenceEglinton characterized public debt as a cycle that necessarily leads to further wars and greater debts, while gradually impoverishing taxpayers, landowners, and laborers.
claimThe author notes that rentiers who lived off public debt were clearly identified in the nineteenth century and questions if this remains true in the modern era.
quoteAdam Smith wrote in 'The Wealth of Nations' regarding public debt: 'To relieve the present exigency is always the object which principally interests those immediately concerned in the administration of publick affairs. The future liberation of the publick revenue, they leave to the care of posterity.'
claimPublic debt in Great Britain escalated during the eighteenth century due to civil unrest, civilian action, constant war, and a docile bourgeoisie.
claimCharles Davenant observed that the creation of public debt led to increased taxation on landowners, which resulted in public suspicion and ill-will toward the government.
claimFinanciers of public debt in the 18th century influenced British government policy and shaped the future of extractive capitalism.
claimThe architects of the British transatlantic slave trade used profits from the trade to purchase public debt, seize political power, and incite wars and disasters to create a perpetual engine of passive revenue.
claimAlexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton, wrote a pamphlet in 1753 urging landowners to unite with laborers to oppose the growth of public debt, arguing that taxpayers were funding foreign wars that primarily benefited joint-stock companies.
Social Epistemology - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Feb 26, 2001 1 fact
claimLynch (2018) argues that epistemic arrogance, defined as an unwillingness to learn from others, undermines the process of public debate.