4 ms·
Doesn't debt, both national and personal, come into this equation in a big way, though, as far as anchors? Like, if I bought a house 10 years ago for $50k (whi
by smeej 2y ago
Doesn't debt, both national and personal, come into this equation in a big way, though, as far as anchors?
Like, if I bought a house 10 years ago for $50k (which I actually did), paying off $50k with today's dollars seems like no big deal compared to yesterday's dollars. $50k today buys a new car, not a (admittedly on the inexpensive end even at the time) new house.
If the prices of other things are growing a lot faster than the interest rate I got on that house (which I'd think of as the expected time value of that money over the life of the mortgage), it makes sems that the prices are "high" relative to that expectation.
I think something similar happens on the scale of the national debt. Adding a trillion dollars now isn't nearly as big a deal as adding a trillion dollars the first time, because "prices are high" for both labor and goods (income and expenses, from the average citizen's perspective).