"In fact, because principal on debt is created by said debt, but interest is not so created, it is not even possible to pay off all the debt. There is literally

"In fact, because principal on debt is created by said debt, but interest is not so created, it is not even possible to pay off all the debt. There is literally not enough cash in existence to do it." That's true in principle, but in practice inflation makes a difference. Let's say $100 in cash is added to the economy today, and $104 in debt is added at the same time. Next year, inflation will have done two things: it will have decreased the value of the $4 of debt, and it will have increased the rate that new cash/debt is added to the economy. So maybe next year $110 in cash and $114.40 in new debt will be added. The old debt gets paid off, but now we have $4.40 in new debt, but it's "worth" the same amount as last year's debt, so we're even. Sort-of, anyway. In practice the system isn't so balanced, and the old debt isn't paid off, it just piles up. One solution is to stop generating new cash this way. Instead, next year the treasury could generate $114 of debt-free cash instead of borrowing it from the fed. $104 of that could go towards paying last years debt, and the remaining $10 would be a permanent debt-free addition to the economy. Eventually all of the debt-based cash could be replaced, and the treasury/congress would be back in charge of our monetary system. There are drawbacks to that approach too (partly why the semi-independent fed was created) but it's constitutional and at least the responsible parties would be elected officials.