In Occupy Wall Street: The Return of Shays’ Rebellion, I wrote about how the Occupy Wall Street protesters, like the participants in Shays’ Rebellion, demand debt relief or forgiveness. But I must point out that this demand for debt relief predates the United States by at least a couple of thousand years.
The ancient Greek and ancient Roman historians and philosophers warned against debt relief and those who demand it.
About 2,300 years ago, Plato warned the ancient Greeks:
And is it not true that in like manner a leader of the people who, getting control of a docile mob, does not withhold his hand from the shedding of tribal blood, but by the customary unjust accusations brings a citizen into court and assassinates him, blotting out a human life, and with unhallowed tongue and lips that have tasted kindred blood, banishes and slays and hints at the abolition of debts and the partition of lands.
In ancient Rome, Cicero warned:
And what is the meaning of an abolition of debts, except that you buy a farm with my money; that you have the farm, and I have not my money?
They say that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. With the return of the demand for debt relief, we clearly have neglecting our study of history.
– Michael E. Newton is the author of the highly acclaimed The Path to Tyranny: A History of Free Society’s Descent into Tyranny. His newest book, Angry Mobs and Founding Fathers: The Fight for Control of the American Revolution, was released by Eleftheria Publishing in July.
Michael E. Newton 
That’s all well and good advice, had we not given relief and forgiveness to the people giving the money, which did not happen during their time. Is it really fair to give exceptions to the people owed and not to the people that owe?