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The debt doesn't matter too much... what matters the most for any country is if they have a lot of educated and talented people living there or not, the compani

The debt doesn't matter too much... what matters the most for any country is if they have a lot of educated and talented people living there or not, the companies they work for, and a stable society and political environment. This is not going to change due to federal accounting tricks. It would be better to live in the U.S. with a 100x debt/gdp than live in Haiti, Niger, or South Sudan with a 0.1x debt/gdp.

panick21_ 2y ago
Better then a 3rd world country in a civial war isnt the goal most people aspire too. Servicing the exisiting debt already cost the US a whole militaries worth of budget. And that is after decades of low interest rates. If interest rates go up even slightly, you have to refinance all the debt with a higher rate. And if the private market ever decide to lower the rating on US debt, or starts to expect higher inflation. The debt servicing alone could consume pretty much the whole discretionary budget. And remember the are massive budget issue on town and state level in the US too. And they expect the federal government to fund all the massive infrastructure spending they need. Plus all the federal infrastructure.All that infrastructure from the 60-70 is falling apart. The backlog is already huge and getting bigger, that from the discretionary budget. So debt absolutly matters, it has mattered to every government for at least 5000 years. A societ that is stable can be made unstable, and debt is usually involved. France just had massive demostrations because they wanted to increase retierment age. And that was a drop in the bucket compared to what France needs. That has lead to massive victory for outright nazi party in France, and the far left who want to ignore this problem has also won. And this is in normal peacful times. What if another finacial crisis happen? Lets see how stable everything is once taxes double or social services get cut massively. That how you get people elected with programs that are the opposite of a stable political envoirment.
- xyzzy4747 2y ago
  Yes the debt matters, but compared to other factors in a nation with its own currency, it's quite insignificant. My point is other people are acting like its doomsday if the debt goes too high but I don't think it's that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
  - panick21_ 2y ago
    You are spending literally a whole US military budget worth of money EVERY YEAR on just debt servicing. And that is gone go up by a lot more in the next 20 years if nothing fundamental changes. And if you actually look at your discretionary budget, that discretionary will be continually under pressure. And having your own currency isn't magic. All it allows you do, is use inflation to take money from your citizens without having to get something threw parliament. The US has had a history of extremely fiscally conservative governments. After each major war they instantly reduced debt again. So Americans somehow think this isn't a problem, because in US history it has never been much of a problem. But for the last 40 the US political environment has changed and now the opposite is true, neither party is interested at all in reducing the debt. The reality will catch up with the US as it has with 100s of other nations over the last couple 100 years of history. > compared to other factors The things you call 'other' aren't that 'other'. They are linked to money and money is linked to debt. Getting educated people isn't free. You have to spend money, from pre-school all the way to university. Companies need infrastructure. Infrastructure cost money. How much you can invest depends on debt. And that political stability depends people getting basic needs met. You act like debt was some separate problem that has little impact on anything else, but this historically just isn't the case. > people are acting like its doomsday No people are not acting like its 'doomsday', they are simply pointing out some basic realities about the topic and saying 'this is a problem we need to actually take seriously'.

panick21_ 2y ago

Better then a 3rd world country in a civial war isnt the goal most people aspire too. Servicing the exisiting debt already cost the US a whole militaries worth of budget. And that is after decades of low interest rates. If interest rates go up even slightly, you have to refinance all the debt with a higher rate. And if the private market ever decide to lower the rating on US debt, or starts to expect higher inflation. The debt servicing alone could consume pretty much the whole discretionary budget. And remember the are massive budget issue on town and state level in the US too. And they expect the federal government to fund all the massive infrastructure spending they need. Plus all the federal infrastructure.All that infrastructure from the 60-70 is falling apart. The backlog is already huge and getting bigger, that from the discretionary budget. So debt absolutly matters, it has mattered to every government for at least 5000 years. A societ that is stable can be made unstable, and debt is usually involved. France just had massive demostrations because they wanted to increase retierment age. And that was a drop in the bucket compared to what France needs. That has lead to massive victory for outright nazi party in France, and the far left who want to ignore this problem has also won. And this is in normal peacful times. What if another finacial crisis happen? Lets see how stable everything is once taxes double or social services get cut massively. That how you get people elected with programs that are the opposite of a stable political envoirment.

xyzzy4747 2y ago
Yes the debt matters, but compared to other factors in a nation with its own currency, it's quite insignificant. My point is other people are acting like its doomsday if the debt goes too high but I don't think it's that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.
- panick21_ 2y ago
  You are spending literally a whole US military budget worth of money EVERY YEAR on just debt servicing. And that is gone go up by a lot more in the next 20 years if nothing fundamental changes. And if you actually look at your discretionary budget, that discretionary will be continually under pressure. And having your own currency isn't magic. All it allows you do, is use inflation to take money from your citizens without having to get something threw parliament. The US has had a history of extremely fiscally conservative governments. After each major war they instantly reduced debt again. So Americans somehow think this isn't a problem, because in US history it has never been much of a problem. But for the last 40 the US political environment has changed and now the opposite is true, neither party is interested at all in reducing the debt. The reality will catch up with the US as it has with 100s of other nations over the last couple 100 years of history. > compared to other factors The things you call 'other' aren't that 'other'. They are linked to money and money is linked to debt. Getting educated people isn't free. You have to spend money, from pre-school all the way to university. Companies need infrastructure. Infrastructure cost money. How much you can invest depends on debt. And that political stability depends people getting basic needs met. You act like debt was some separate problem that has little impact on anything else, but this historically just isn't the case. > people are acting like its doomsday No people are not acting like its 'doomsday', they are simply pointing out some basic realities about the topic and saying 'this is a problem we need to actually take seriously'.