Putting The National Debt Into Perspective We Can All Understand

Money Metals ^ | 07/20/2024 | Mike Maharrey

[joshua c]

govt debt = deferred taxes

the debt is about 7 times what they currently collect

[Kozak]

A. That’s just the official debt and doesn’t include unfunded liabilities or State and Local debt. That brings to around 100 trillion.

B. It’s never going to be paid. It’s impossible. We either default, or inflate it away.
Personally I prefer default. That would hit other countries and the 1% the hardest. Inflation will wipe out the poor and middle class.

[caddie]

Yes it is a lot of debt.

More helpful than talking about stacks of dollars stretching to Alpha Centauri and back would be a discussion about the debt-to-GDP ratio, showing that we are the eighth-worst country on earth in that regard.

I would like to know how historically other countries got this deep (130 percent) in debt and then got out.

I believe this would be more helpful.

Two truths to take away:

There is only one engine in the universe capable of pulling us out of this degree of debt: the American economy. And it can do so.

Our speculative markets and the larger economy are part based on brick-and-mortar assets and quantifiable productivity. But they are also human-being, emotion based objects.

So any SERIOUS attempt at controlling spending will be very warmly received by the markets and the larger economy, producing a salubrious effect above and beyond any strict improvement in productivity and earnings. We can correct our downward spiral quicker than it would seem.