Posted on 05/28/2020 4:41:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
The current U.S. budget deficit could soon exceed a record $4 trillion. The massive borrowing is being driven both by prior budget profligacy and a hurried effort by the Donald Trump administration to pump liquidity into a quarantined America.
The shutdown has left the country on the cusp of a self-inflicted economic collapse not seen since the Great Depression.
Americans may soon have to service a staggering national debt of about $30 trillion -- nearly $100,000 of debt for every American.
Democrats and Republicans can blame each other, either for spending too much or for too little taxation, or both. But both sides will agree that managing such an astronomical debt requires several frightening choices.
One, Americans would be forced to live with permanent near-zero interest rates, or perhaps even negative interest rates.
We are already seeing how the current low interest rates punish those who were thrifty and put away money in savings accounts. Negligible interest rewards those who borrow but forces savers to look for returns in volatile real estate or the risky stock market.
In other words, there would be little interest paid out on the federal debt. The selling point for investors would be that the U.S. at least honors its bonds and debts and is safer than alternative global investments.
America would become a permanent debtor that avoids paying much interest to anyone who lends it ever more money -- on the cynical rationale that investors have no other safe place to put their money.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
“staggering national debt of about $30 trillion”
Hungarian pengu (1946), anyone?
I see global default as inevitable. The level of debt can’t be repaid. The Central Banks (i.e. Federal Reserve) have created an unsustainable and ruinous system and at some point a Jubilee will have to be declared.
It will be damaging, of course. But the current system is damaging. And if we continue down the current unsustainable path who wins and who loses? The little guy loses and the banks win. If we declare a jubilee and debt is erased, who wins and who loses? The little guy wins and the banks lose. Well, the banks caused the problem, so why shouldn’t they lose? It’s not like the Federal Reserve are the Good Guys.
People will say a default is impossible. I say paying off the debt is impossible. You’ve got two impossible things. One of them will end up being possible.
I just hope that we don’t have worthless currency where dollars are less than the new cents.
Naw, I am thinking more like $40 trillion by 2030, when all that projected business and personal taxes fail to materialiize.
Buy gold.
I don’t understand your rationale here. I think it’s the other way around. The “little guy” in the U.S. has been the primary beneficiary of the current system. $25+ trillion of debt was the cost of enabling this “little guy” to enjoy the highest standard of living in the history of the human race.
You’re crazy. The ‘little’ guy has been paying 50% in taxes forever. Ask the nurse to up your meds.
A TARIFF will close the deficit, protect US jobs and industry WIN -WIN.
The income tax is EVIL.
Tariffs are Patriot Candy!!!
I see a tariff as inevitable.
I’ll take my meds if you can cite any evidence for your “50% in taxes” claim.
I recognize the fact that a lot of “free money” help fuel a wild consumer economy. People might see that as a good thing. Like cheap goods from China. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!
But once upon a time, people could live a middle class lifestyle on one income. Healthcare was not ruinously costly. College was actually affordable. Our economy has changed. We’re all wage slaves now. Health care is killing people. College debt ruins young people’s future. Mom has to work and the kids are raised in daycare. It’s a pretty crazy system and a lot of the problem is the debt.
People may like some aspects of “free money” from the Fed but I think they’ve turned us into junkies who need another fix. That’s no way to live.
All I have done for my entire adult life is PAY taxes. What free money did I ever get? NONE!! Have you lost it today or what?
My Federal, state, local and property taxes are at 50%. What planet do you live on? Planet Claire with pink air?
I’m not sure I communicated badly, but I’m making the point that the debt is bad and that workers pay enormous taxes to service the debt and I’m unhappy about it. Pretty darn sure you and I are making the same point. Perhaps I expressed it poorly.
Why should I care? 30+ million unemployed and the Republicans just demanded Trump give them more h-1 and H-2 visas. So F the Republicans. All they want is cheap labor and for me to be replaced. I am supposed to worry or care about what again?
Your personal anecdote is not “evidence.” And your state and local taxes have nothing to do with the national debt.
States are in debt too.
They sure are. That would be a more appropriate subject for this article, since these states can’t print their own money and can’t do a lot of other things the Federal government can do to manage its finances.
Maybe that was true, but I'll point out two things:
1. What has changed over the years hasn't been the COST of a "middle class lifestyle," but the DEFINITION of this lifestyle. You can still afford to live a middle-class lifestyle on one income today -- but only if your lifestyle involves things that were part of a middle class lifestyle 40+ years ago. How much do you think health care (to cite one example) would cost today if none of the treatments and medications developed in the last 50 years existed -- and anything more complicated than a broken bone was likely to be fatal? It wouldn't cost much at all.
2. Most of the things people today associate with a "middle class lifestyle" from prior generations only existed because they were facilitated by outright big-government socialism. I'll cite Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, the Interstate Highway System, and even the Homestead Act of the 19th century as prime examples of this.
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