You wrote: "OTOH, if the land will not or can not be separated and sold, then it is an illiquid asset and can not be used to offset liabilities." Part of the value of your home or a commercial building is the land it sits on, which can not be separated and sold, yet it is still valued when calculating net worth. Do you figure your net worth by including debt on your home but excluding the value of the home?
That won't even cover 1 years interest on the borrowed debt, let alone make a dent in the $44T.
Your premise was the value of The assets of the federal government and the local and state governments is is never discussed. How much land does the federal government own?
The Federal government claims to own, or can take by process of eminent domain - all of it - period. We serfs are allowed to squat on our property provided we can pay our property tax. Don't pay the tax - the government will take your property and sell it for taxes. If you're going to seriously offset a $44T liability, you're going to need more than 40 miles of coastland.
Part of the value of your home or a commercial building is the land it sits on, which can not be separated and sold, yet it is still valued when calculating net worth. Do you figure your net worth by including debt on your home but excluding the value of the home?
No. Your formula for net worth is simply wrong. If you don't have mineral, water, air rights etc, you can't sell them and they don't figure into your property value or net worth.
If you can't separate it for sale, it can't be sold and can't be used to liquidate liabilities. Nor can you violate zoning ordinances.
But if the land were to be sold to a foreign government, they would expect to be able drill it, fly over it, dump toxic waste on it, build a permanent miltary base on it, whatever they wanted.
The US government does not own our homes & office buildings and they can not legitimately be included in your premise of liquidatable US assets. The debt is the US governments, and the US assets you imply can be liquidated would have to be government-owned assets, which pretty much leaves the land (above & below ground).
And if you're serious about putting up as collateral US government owend real estate, you'll need a foreign government buyer. No one else has the cash to pay enough to liquidate our debt. But governments expect more than just renting space for 99 years.