4 ms·

That's a best case scenario and feels overly optimistic. What are the chances it gets fully repaid?

• lotsofpulp 6y ago
  Assuming society continues onward, it doesn't really need to be fully repaid. The value is in the organization and structure of society. However, war, environmental catastrophes, population decline, and loss of trust between citizens of a nation can cause a decrease in the predictability of actions and consequences in society, and that would be a problem for any debt issued with rosier assumptions.
• Qasaur 6y ago
  It cannot be repaid, ever, because the interest exceeds the amount of money that is currently in existence, which means they will always have to borrow more money (which is created out of thin air) to service the debt.
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  • comicjk 6y ago
    Interest on the national debt is $400-$600 billion per year depending on what you count (a lot of it is paid to the federal government itself). It's a lot of money, but it's a small fraction of the federal budget. It's also less than the amount of money in existence - M1 is $5.5 trillion and can easily be expanded, as mentioned. (It also wouldn't necessarily matter if the interest per year were greater than the total amount of money in existence. If the money supply were $20, that wouldn't make it impossible for me to pay you $21/year; I could pay it in 21 $1 payments.)