It's clear most people have no idea how government debt works. Everyone thinks it's like a household, that the government spends it's revenue and borrows money

It's clear most people have no idea how government debt works. Everyone thinks it's like a household, that the government spends it's revenue and borrows money from someone else. Imagine you are the JohnDoe family. You are able to issue JohnDoe bucks. You spend the JohnDoe bucks first and then later ask for some of them back (as taxes). The difference between what you spend and what you get back is called the JohnDoe deficit. And the aggregate of the deficit is the JohnDoe "debt". On the other side of the transaction, those that provide services to the JohnDoe family now have JohnDoe bucks and because they didn't have to give all of them back to the JohnDoe family they keep some in bank accounts. Another way to say this, the US debt can also be called "US people's savings". JohnDoe also issues bonds with a percent return. Some of the people with these JohnDoe bucks might buy the bonds to get the return. The question is, is the JohnDoe family ever in danger of not paying those bonds back? The clear answer is no, they can always pay back any debt as long as it's denominated in JohnDoe bucks. Wouldn't you like to be the JohnDoe family?