there's a reason that economics is often referred to as a "black art".
This following may interest some...
Every dollar issued, is a dollar owed. To make things more complicated, every dollar owed has interest owed on top of it. To pay the interest as well (and avoid your assets being taken back from you), you need to find more money than was actually issued. I call it a domino-effect of usury. This is why some people perceive 'money' as the root of all evil, but it is not the money itself.
The Lender, in this example, doesn't have or doesn't want to loan tangible assets (or services) to be traded. Instead, they take advantage of a privilege which is not awarded to the rest of the community. But rather than calling it 'counterfeit', they call it 'credit'. Left unchecked, the Lender, theoretically, can eventually claim ownership of everything. The 'elegance' of this system, however, is that the Lender does not have to micro-manage everybody. People will "Render unto [Lender]" autonomously.
Taxes are a different matter, yet can become just as insidious.
Because (currently) deflation will always be greater than inflation, more loans/extensions of credit are issued to keep the economy running. This is the "unsustainable" cycle, rarely talked about openly.
So, how do you remedy this domino-effect of usury?
It would require the Lender to demand less in return than it issued. Before you shout "That's impossible!", keep in mind that we are taking about money-created-from-nothing also known to the Lender as "credit". It would still be a mutually beneficial financial arrangement, but there would have to be strict conditions applied to prevent such a system from being taken advantage of. (Not that the current system isn't already being taken advantage of by the Lender.)
It's not a one-stop solution to everything, but it would be a very good start.
Ethically, 'odious' debt ought to be considered for forgiveness.
Email your congress(wo)man.
Did anyone read all that? Oh, they didn't? :(