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Originally Posted by Solace
The debt isn't the problem, nor is paying it off. The real issue is that the money the government is spending has questionable long term value. Is dumping 700 billion dollars into the financial industry worth it after a few years, or could that money have been better spent for the future of the country?
Note that pretty much every industrial nation has a significant amount of debt. At this point money has become so worthless as a backed transaction that we simply value money for the writings on it and the faith in the country issuing it. If you were to actually break down the US debt and figure out how to repay it, you're still looking at an incredibly long time before the numbers go down noticeably. It would take several generations before the numbers came down to "sane" levels.TRE65F5CC20100616[/url]
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I agree with a lot of what you're saying here, but the fact of the matter is the US has far and away more debt than any other nation. Look at the current crisis in Greece, where we are getting all this turmoil over debt that represents something like 13% of their GDP. The only reason the US isn't currently facing that situation is because we aren't part of a union like the EU and we control our 'money printing press,' so to speak. We have avoided the problem by printing more money, which will ultimately bite us in butt if it leads to hyperinflation. The amount of money the US has in unfunded liabilities + national debt represents nearly 100% of our GDP!!! Far worse than Greece but as I said we keep sweeping it under the rug by printing more money. Our money can collapse even in the current FIAT system because whether we deny it or not gold/silver prices and precious metals are still the true world currency. The worst part of that debacle is that JP Morgan has been selling investors silver certificates of ownership when in reality they aren't storing physical silver. The US banking industry has been selling investors what they believe to be physical silver that does not actually exist. When the time comes for them to call in their silver, there will be a devastating short squeeze on the supply of physical silver. Even worse for the US, brother China seems to be catching wind of this and has reduced the US currency holdings for several months in a row now.
I'm actually surprised everyone is so nonchalant about our national debt. It is an astoundingly large number that we have no hope of ever paying off. Even if we got rid of every government institution, INCLUDING THE MILITARY, tax receipts would still not cover social security, medicare, and medicaid. Now if that isn't cause for alarm I don't know what is. We need to start taking action, fast, to be ready for an impeding disaster...