The British war debt after WW2 was some 27 Billion dollars (adjusted to current value of the dollar). It took some sixty years to pay off, finally being paid off in Jan 2007. That included the action of 2% interest.
Current American debt is nearly 1500 times higher than that. US GDP is 7 times that of the UK, so the debt compared with the ability to pay is maybe 200 times that of the British war debt.
200 war debts, all at the same time. Ouch.
With the US’s 14T GDP I can’t see this debt being repaid within the next 400 years.
My bad, I got the math wrong. It’s only about 7 war-debts.
400 years repayment time is still about right though.
That’s assuming there is an intent to pay down the principle. We’re only paying on the interest. This is the equivalent of an interest-only mortgage on a house.