Hi Gail, thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the money supply would have to decrease due to current debts.

I don't have any doubt that we could provide full retirement benefits, but I rather seriously doubt that we will want to. It is certainly a theoretical possibility that every working person in the United States could devote one half or more of their productive time to the care of our retired citizens. I don't think there are many non-retired persons that would like that idea.

Our current system is certainly more complex than the one I propose. I think the problem is that the concept is strange at first glance. But really, the concept is exceedingly simple: a tax on money. Is income tax more simple? Collecting sales tax at every point of sale? Which taxes incentivize strong commerce? Penalize making money, penalize participating in commerce, or penalize the interruption of commerce by withholding the medium of exchange?

I don't see why it would be any more complex for villagers in Africa to trade pieces of paper (or any other token) that have expiration dates as opposed to pieces of paper without expiration dates.