1) Don't confuse GDP with family income. GDP is the value of everything manufactured and produced in the country. Think of a single breadwinner home. While the breadwinner earns the salary, the stay-at-home parent still produces -- cooking meals, cleaning, etc.
2) It would require EVERYTHING produced in this country for one year to payoff the debt. How much of that does the government own or get to confiscate through taxes? THAT is the government's income relative to the debt.
3) And even that, assumes the full amount taken is used to retire the debt. That means, no other government services are provided. No military, no social programs, no salaries (what does THAT do to GDP?)
The only thing that makes the current debt situation even modestly tenable is the low interest rates we're paying on the debt. Think those are going to stay low forever?
bkmk
Actually, the comparison of GDP with family income is quite fair:
The GDP measures only the value of goods and services for which money changes hands. The family income is likewise a measurement only of the paycheck which the breadwinner takes home.
The GDP is, in essence, the sum total of all of those paychecks. In BOTH cases, activities which improve the standard of living or boost wealth - but for which no money changes hands - are not taken into account.
2) It would require EVERYTHING produced in this country for one year to payoff the debt. How much of that does the government own or get to confiscate through taxes? THAT is the government's income relative to the debt.
Is that really so bad? If I have a gross income of $100,000 a year, I'd say that it wasn't unreasonable to have $100,000 in total debt. After all, as long as interest rates remain as low as they are (i.e., verging on negative rates), I should be able to service that debt with ease. And as long as that debt wasn't taken solely for consumption, but rather also for investment (children's college, purchase of new computer to work from home and thus save gasoline bills, etc.), it can be sensible.
I am no friend of debt (I have none, myself), but there is also no need to be irrational about it.
Regards,
They'll have no guarantee the property will be worth what they bought it for after 30 years. They have no guarantee that they will continue to make 100k per year. And people enter into these by the thousands every day.... with no real plan to ever pay it off, manage the downside, recoup the 350k in interest they'll pay etc. I'd wager there are many here who fit that description. But if the government has debt that totals one years worth of GDP the same are freaked out about it.
It's all a matter of perspective I guess. Individual bankruptcy just seems more acceptable than the government doing it. And that's a fundamental character flaw.