What did Catalonia lend the rest of Spain to create this debt Artur Mas and Rodriguez Zapatero have just discovered? When exactly was this loan arranged? Who signed it? What were the terms? What is the history of the historic debt?

 

Mas and Zapatero’s discovery is nothing more than another cheesy way of expressing the cost in investments in Catalonia demanded under the new Statute. And it reveals in raw, crude detail what this policy consists of: it acts as a mechanism to redistribute, taking income and wealth from some and transferring it to others, with a toll dolled out to the political class along the way. It also discriminates among distinct groups; the power to decide who comes out on top and who on bottom. This is what the State and its managers are all about. 

 

The coercive extraction of income and wealth is called “taxes”. Since limiting itself to squeezing workers and entrepreneurs would eventually lead to rebellion, the State and politics in general have gradually picked up lessons and adopted new strategies over time. Naked robbery becomes redistribution to specific groups according to their power and influence. Once in the game, these groups quickly enter the state apparatus. As historic circumstances change, the groups or social sectors with the greatest influence take an increasing share in the booty and power. The transfer usually comes from disorganized groups goes to organized ones. In Zapatero’s Spain (together with other groups), the Generalidad and friends in Catalonia have the advantage. And do not forget, unlike a free market society, in this game of stealing and political transfers there is no harmony of interests or increasing prosperity for all. Here, what one takes the other loses. Guess who is going to pay the “historic debt”. You won’t need to look too far.   

 

A simple alliance among different groups is not enough to maintain this huge redistribution of wealth over time. It needs one last element: legitimacy. Taking part in the booty is much more efficient if one is able to justify it to society. And there is nothing better than talking about metaphysical concepts –or even meta-historical ones like those used by the nationalists. The “historic debt” is a good example.