They can kick the can for another 20-30 years at least before they're forced to change tactics. In the Japan scenario that the US is following, the US is just

They can kick the can for another 20-30 years at least before they're forced to change tactics. In the Japan scenario that the US is following, the US is just now getting to where Japan was in the mid 1990s. And that's Japan without the global reserve currency and the numerous financing benefits that go with it. The US has an enormous asset base to debase against, to eat, before it arrives at truly severe problems. It has plenty of spare taxing capacity across every income bracket. And as the feds crush the income brackets with higher taxes over time, socialized healthcare will continue to creep up the income bracket, taking up more and more of the market (out of necessity due to cost; middle and low income brackets will lose more of their disposable income to taxation, healthcare will become that much more of a burden). Interest rates will remain exceptionally low for decades to come. The average rate the US Govt pays on its debt will continue to sink lower over time, as the mountain of debt soars higher. That can continue until at least the range of $60-$90 trillion in public debt (1% - 1.5% on $60t-$90t is where they'll push it to over time). 1% on $60t is affordable right now. The skeptics will proclaim such low rates on such a giant pile of debt is impossible - it's not; they would have claimed (circa the mid 1990s) that what has already happened would be impossible too. Courtesy of Japan, we already know what can and will happen, and so does the Fed (even though they constantly lie about it). The massive debt accumulation (in government and corporate) will take care of a lot of the inflationary pressure that would otherwise be present, courtesy of mediocre growth (the debt accumulation and maintenance robbing the economy of capital it needs to grow faster; the debt acting as a heat sink, which is exactly what it has done to Japan). This inflation spike is transitory (the people saying that were too early on the duration aspect though and so they got mocked for it), the labor market is about to crack, growth is at recessionary levels, crypto has crashed, bubbly stocks have crashed. The housing market is going to get hit (although it won't be like the great recession) as the labor market gets rattled, people will shift that much more conservative, and blue chip stocks will get hit harder (blue chips like eg KO, which have largely avoided the damage in the market so far). With mediocre growth and a broken labor market, the inflation wave won't be sustainable over a longer time frame. It's better to think of the present inflation wave as a large one-off reset to higher prices (fallout from the various effects and choices during the pandemic), rather than a persistent ongoing event. That type of inflation burst event might happen from time to time over the coming decades as a consequence to various programs the US Govt and Fed run to try to spur the economy and manage high debt levels. For example, as the economy continues to weaken, the Biden Admin will start talking about trying to do another stimulus shot and or infrastructure. Corporations have rapidly sapped their pricing power to counter inflation. Consumers can only take so much of that, and I believe we're clearly seeing weakening by the consumer in their willingness to keep absorbing huge price hikes on consumer goods. The corps will begin slashing the human cost soon (both delaying hiring and firing) and pushing automation more (eg if your local Walgreens or CVS doesn't have a self-checkout, it soon will; if your local McDonald's doesn't have digital kiosks, it soon will; they'll push labor cost onto the customer wherever they can). --- edit: Someone (greyed out account) replied with this, and I thought it was worth touching on: > there's no way you can convince me healthcare costs will go up if we kick the capitalists out of the industry Well that's not what's going to happen and it certainly won't be a smooth event (the US wakes up one day with a shiny new socialized healthcare system where costs are tightly controlled with top-down pressure). Rather, socialized healthcare will gradually climb up the income ladder out of necessity, because more and more people will be unable to afford the cost of healthcare. The US healthcare market, simply put, will continue to bifurcate (public vs private). Private health coverage will continue to get more expensive, pushing more people onto government coverage / subsidy. The government side will see a lot more top-down pressure on cost/pricing (the government has a very strong incentive to control costs, given the fiscal condition of the US Government, and they'll act accordingly over time). Only the top 1/3 (give or take) income group will continue to be able to afford private healthcare coverage. Private coverage isn't going away and the healthcare market overall isn't going to be nationalized (ie the Capitalists are not getting kicked out wholly, their sandbox will get smaller and what they can charge will get more restricted). The US will see a process of gradual, ongoing expansion of socialized healthcare. It will not happen in a big one-off event, as has been dreamed of for decades by the Democrats (they've been making a horrific mistake for decades by pursuing that approach, which was obviously going to fail; a lot more progress could have been made by now via an aggressive piecemeal persistence). The one-off system change premise is a particularly naive fantasy and can be safely disregarded as a potential outcome. The median American will see a decline in their real disposable income. It'll squeeze them in a lot of different ways as that occurs, including on healthcare, education, housing, rent, automobiles, etc. The income classes will fail to keep up - as they largely have over the past two decades - with the damage to the USD from the national debt and the actions the Fed has to take to deal with that (the Fed playing the role of both enabler and fixer, when it comes to public & corporate debt levels). The asset classes will be fine, they'll largely keep pace (or better) with the loss of value in the USD, although their taxes are going to go up by quite a bit over time (and there will be many attempts at pursuing wealth tax plans). As the income classes lose ground over time, the government will step in and take over more of the financial context of the healthcare and education markets in particular.