Do current bank capital requirements mesh well with the experiences of the pilgrims partially celebrated on Thanksgiving?
I asked Grok: In less than 200 words please.
"Current bank capital requirements are lower against Treasuries than against loans to e.g., American farmers and small businesses. Does this mesh well with the pilgrims’ learnings from the experiences they suffered, part of which is celebrated on Thanksgiving?"
Grok answered:
“No.
The Pilgrims’ great lesson—bitterly learned through starvation under communal farming—was that prosperity requires private property and personal incentive. When each family worked its own plot, abundance followed, and they gave thanks.
Today’s bank capital rules (0% risk weight for Treasuries, 100%+ for loans to farmers and small businesses) do the opposite: they make it far cheaper for banks to fund government debt than to finance the very private agriculture and entrepreneurship the Pilgrims discovered was essential for survival.
The policy actively penalizes lending to the descendants of those who feed us, in order to privilege lending to the state that taxes them.
It is almost perfectly inverted from the Pilgrims’ hard-won wisdom: we now subsidize the commons and starve the private plot.
Thanksgiving celebrates the triumph of individual effort over collectivism. Current regulation celebrates the reverse.
I said: Thanks
Grok replied: You're welcome. Happy Thanksgiving—may your table be as abundant as the one earned when they finally let people keep what they grew.
I asked ChatGPT: In less than 200 words please.
"Current bank capital requirements are lower against Treasuries than against loans to e.g., American farmers and small businesses. Does this mesh well with the pilgrims’ learnings from the experiences they suffered, part of which is celebrated on Thanksgiving?"
ChatGPT answered:
"Not really. The Pilgrims’ experience at Plymouth highlighted a simple truth: survival and prosperity came from rewarding productive effort, not from tilting the system toward whatever seemed safest on paper.
Early on, the colony tried a “common storehouse” system that blunted individual initiative; harvests were poor and hunger followed. When they shifted to private plots and personal responsibility, output rose sharply. Productivity—not guaranteed safety—saved them.
Modern bank capital rules do the opposite. By assigning near-zero capital to Treasuries and higher capital to loans to farmers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses, regulators effectively discourage lending to the very people who generate real economic value. Banks maximize return on capital by holding government debt rather than financing productive work.
This bias may enhance formal financial stability, but it runs against the Pilgrims’ core lesson: a system thrives when effort, risk-taking, and enterprise are supported, not penalized."
Thanks!
You're welcome! If you'd like to refine it further just let me know.
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