Debt is the System, Not a Mistake

Why do so many of us feel trapped, stressed, and fearful about money?

In this Explainer episode, we unpack one source’s provocative claim: that financial anxiety isn’t a personal failure, it’s a designed feature of a debt-based economic system. According to this perspective, the modern financial structure thrives on fear, conditioning us from school age to become compliant participants in a cycle of debt, taxation, and dependence.

We trace how money is literally created as debt, how compliance — not cash — fuels the system, and how reclaiming knowledge and choice can begin to dissolve financial fear. The episode also explores the idea of “private free trade” as an alternative model for personal and collective sovereignty.

Discover how understanding the system itself may be the first real step toward freedom from it.

Presented by the Private Members Union (PMU).