So you want a big tax cut, because the government surplus is ours and we should get it back?

That’s nice.

But who do you think the government debt belongs to the man in the moon? The public debt belongs to us, too, just as the surplus does.

The debt grew over many decades, for spending we liked and spending we didn’t like. (Lefties and righties, fill in the good and evil spending of your choice.) Mostly, it grew during recessions and wars.

Today, there’s a consensus that the total debt should be reduced. But how can we do that and get a big tax cut, too?

I have a modest proposal. It’s inspired by those who argue for privatizing more of the government’s functions. I propose that we privatize the debt.

We should all get big tax cuts the sky’s the limit. But each cut should be packaged with a proportionate piece of the public debt. That’s the true libertarian way.

As things stand now, the government is forcing each of us to repay our portion of the debt, whether we want to or not. (In the last fiscal year, 232 billion of our tax dollars were spent that way.)

If the debt were privatized, it would become our direct responsibility. No more coasting along on the public purse.

We could pay what we owe whenever we choose maybe next year, maybe never. Naturally, the legislation would let us leave our unpaid portion to our kids.

What? What? Do I hear you say that you don’t want your piece of the debt on your personal balance sheet? You’re for collective responsibility after all?

In that case, I have something else to say.

It’s in our collective interest that the government run surpluses today, rather than opt for big tax cuts or big new spending programs. These surpluses are currently our principal source of new investment capital, for business modernization and growth.

To raise money to invest for the future, businesses have to draw on national savings. But on average, individual Americans aren’t saving a dime. We’re spending everything we earn (in some months, more than we earn).

So where are the new savings coming from, for business use? From the federal budget surplus. Few people understand that government surpluses create savings, too.

Here’s how that happens, as explained by Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow, in the Oct. 5 issue of the New York Review of Books: In years when the government spends more than it collects in taxes, it borrows the extra money it needs from the investing public (U.S. and foreign individuals and institutions).

It borrows by selling us Treasury bills and bonds. When we buy them, money shifts from the private sector to the government sector to finance public purchasing and programs.

Lately, the government has been collecting more in taxes than it needs to cover spending. The surplus reduces the need for debt. Some of those Treasury bills and bonds are being retired or redeemed.

When that happens, the institutions that own them have to replace them with something else. Often, they switch to corporate bonds (and perhaps some equities). So the money moves out the government’s hands and back into the private sector.

Running surpluses hurts an economy in recessionary times. But in prosperous times, it’s a pro-growth, pro-investment choice.

Follow along with me here, because this principle becomes central to financing Social Security and Medicare, when the baby boomers retire.

Reducing the federal debt today, and injecting more savings into the private economy, helps businesses buy more up-to-date equipment and take advantage of new technological advances.

That makes workers more productive and raises their real incomes. As a result, they’ll be able to cover more of the cost of supporting the older generation.

What’s more, by working down the debt, the nation will have more room to borrow the money back in the years when the boomers are straining the federal budget the most.

So we’re choosing between using up this money now (in big tax cuts, higher spending and higher personal consumption) or investing it for the future. To me, that’s a no-brainer.

Invest by paying down the debt.

Syndicated columnist Jane Bryant Quinn can be reached in care of the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., Washington D.C. 20071-9200.