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> debt held by the public will surpass gross domestic product > They're comparing GDP which is $/year, with debt, which is $. You can't compare different units
by tjrgergw 3y ago
> debt held by the public will surpass gross domestic product
> They're comparing GDP which is $/year, with debt, which is $. You can't compare different units like that.
Hopefully it's obvious to everyone else here that they're comparing the debt with the GDP of a year.
- kristianp 3y agoThat's not what it says: "The Congressional Budget Office regularly updates its long-term budget forecasts and says that U.S. debt held by the public will surpass gross domestic product this fiscal year and that interest on that debt will equal about three-quarters of discretionary, nondefense spending. "
- tjrgergw 3y agoIf debt SURPASSES gdp that means you need to be able to compare them, regardless of what else the phrase goes on to say about interest. The way I would explain it to webdevs on this website is: the >= has been defined for these two types. If instead they had written "debt interest will equal three-quarters of etc.." then you'd be 100% correct. As it is, the above poster is correct that a) debt and gdp have different units, b) the word surpass implies a comparison. All I'm adding is that there's an implied conversion: it's obvious that they mean the gdp of a year.
- tjrgergw 3y ago*hasn't been. That was a typo, in case it wasn't bleeding obvious.