The part that is government debt, I think of as private funding of government: * Government cannot cover its expenses through taxes * There is plenty of wealt

The part that is government debt, I think of as private funding of government: * Government cannot cover its expenses through taxes * There is plenty of wealth out there though, and its owners are eager to "invest" it The problem is that with funding comes power. If a government owes you, you have some kind of power over it. There are many mechanisms — beyond the scope of this comment — but it leads to greater capture of government by the wealthy. Who is wealthy? * Retirement funds * Companies with lots of cash sitting around * Investment firms An alternate approach would be to raise taxe rates on these entities instead (and hopefully lower the tax rates when the crisis passes) — then they wouldn't get the money back. In the case of retirement funds, you'd need to compensate with direct payments to retirees in general, which would be a redistribution of wealth.