4 ms·

There's a lot that doesn't make any sense. As you say, interest rates are low. Plenty of people are out of work. To me, that says, "perfect time to build and

There's a lot that doesn't make any sense. As you say, interest rates are low. Plenty of people are out of work. To me, that says, "perfect time to build and repair infrastructure!" Whether you believe FDR's New Deal helped or hindered recovery from the Great Depression, the simple, business-oriented financials of it would seem to indicate that right now is the time to be building roads, trains, dams, nuclear plants, etc. Instead, we cut funding to things which may pay off later in order to funnel money into which have an inevitable negative rate of return, like imprisoning people, security theater, and killing people on the other side of the globe.

mdkess 15y ago
That's exactly what I thought the response would have been. Cheap money, low employment - hire lots of people to do stuff. But it seems like the public opinion is that this debt is bad, and I'm don't understand why entirely. I mean, I see a lot of comparisons to credit card debt, so is it just lack of education/understanding?
- eazolan 15y ago
  Why do you think borrowed money is "cheap"? We're not paying it back. Any of it. At best we can cover the interest payments. Why do you think this won't blow up in our faces?
  - mdkess 15y ago
    Interest has not become a huge issue, but in any case - so what? They got the money for cheap, it has (presumably) fueled growth. Beating 1.5% over five years is not difficult - the idea is to borrow money to accelerate growth - increase prosperity of America, which would return more than 1.5%. Not all debt is bad.
    - Cushman 15y ago
      This requires allowing the government to consider tax income as a revenue stream, which isn't playing well politically right now. We're supposed to think of taxes as money the government had no right to collect in the first place, and which the only right thing for it to do with is give it back.
  - bubbleRefuge 15y ago
    Having a free floating fx sovereign currency issuing regime such as the US,UK,Japan. The federal debt is equal to the private sector savings. Paying of the debt eliminates our savings. This would throw us into great depression ii. We should have perpetual deficits.
- MartinCron 15y ago
  If I could get a credit card that charged 1.5% interest, I would start borrowing to make my own damn roads.

mdkess 15y ago

That's exactly what I thought the response would have been. Cheap money, low employment - hire lots of people to do stuff. But it seems like the public opinion is that this debt is bad, and I'm don't understand why entirely. I mean, I see a lot of comparisons to credit card debt, so is it just lack of education/understanding?

eazolan 15y ago
Why do you think borrowed money is "cheap"? We're not paying it back. Any of it. At best we can cover the interest payments. Why do you think this won't blow up in our faces?
- mdkess 15y ago
  Interest has not become a huge issue, but in any case - so what? They got the money for cheap, it has (presumably) fueled growth. Beating 1.5% over five years is not difficult - the idea is to borrow money to accelerate growth - increase prosperity of America, which would return more than 1.5%. Not all debt is bad.
  - Cushman 15y ago
    This requires allowing the government to consider tax income as a revenue stream, which isn't playing well politically right now. We're supposed to think of taxes as money the government had no right to collect in the first place, and which the only right thing for it to do with is give it back.
- bubbleRefuge 15y ago
  Having a free floating fx sovereign currency issuing regime such as the US,UK,Japan. The federal debt is equal to the private sector savings. Paying of the debt eliminates our savings. This would throw us into great depression ii. We should have perpetual deficits.
MartinCron 15y ago
If I could get a credit card that charged 1.5% interest, I would start borrowing to make my own damn roads.