4 ms·

Has the number ever decreased? As in, have they actually paid things off? Without actual numbers, U.S feels increasingly like a high-school bully who borrows mo

Has the number ever decreased? As in, have they actually paid things off? Without actual numbers, U.S feels increasingly like a high-school bully who borrows money and then threatens with violence when that money is wanted back.

l33t7332273 3y ago
I don’t think US really threatens violence when people collect on the public debt. This is quite rare historically because it makes people weary to lend you money. Payments, including interest, are regularly made and of course individual debts are paid all the time.
buerkle 3y ago
The only time the US was debt free was a few years during Andrew Jackson's presidency.
macintux 3y ago
We were paying it off at the end of the 90s, some projections had the debt paid off in 10 years, but then Bush 2.0's tax cuts and 9/11 wrecked everything. (I could be off in some details, but I remember my despair when Greenspan gave Congress cover for supporting the tax cuts by testifying that it wasn't necessarily a good thing to be debt-free.)
metabagel 3y ago
A better question is whether the percentage of debt to GDP has ever decreased, and it has. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S
jongjong 3y ago
Agreed. If a government never intends to reduce its debt load, it may as well just start printing money outright and giving it to their friends. In fact that would be fairer because debt creates an artificial burden on the shoulders of the population who then has to pay a second time for all that mismanagement and/or corruption. First they pay through inflation, secondly they pay through enslavement to repay the debt which backed the inflation which enriched those who are now enslaving them.
teaearlgraycold 3y ago
You pay off pieces. They acquire more than they pay off, though. And their income keeps going up so it’s not necessarily a problem to do that. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean the debt they’re taking on is for good. But the rough idea of expanding the debt with the GDP seems reasonable to me.

l33t7332273 3y ago

I don’t think US really threatens violence when people collect on the public debt. This is quite rare historically because it makes people weary to lend you money. Payments, including interest, are regularly made and of course individual debts are paid all the time.

buerkle 3y ago

The only time the US was debt free was a few years during Andrew Jackson's presidency.

macintux 3y ago

We were paying it off at the end of the 90s, some projections had the debt paid off in 10 years, but then Bush 2.0's tax cuts and 9/11 wrecked everything. (I could be off in some details, but I remember my despair when Greenspan gave Congress cover for supporting the tax cuts by testifying that it wasn't necessarily a good thing to be debt-free.)

metabagel 3y ago

A better question is whether the percentage of debt to GDP has ever decreased, and it has. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S

jongjong 3y ago

Agreed. If a government never intends to reduce its debt load, it may as well just start printing money outright and giving it to their friends. In fact that would be fairer because debt creates an artificial burden on the shoulders of the population who then has to pay a second time for all that mismanagement and/or corruption. First they pay through inflation, secondly they pay through enslavement to repay the debt which backed the inflation which enriched those who are now enslaving them.

teaearlgraycold 3y ago

You pay off pieces. They acquire more than they pay off, though. And their income keeps going up so it’s not necessarily a problem to do that. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean the debt they’re taking on is for good. But the rough idea of expanding the debt with the GDP seems reasonable to me.