Because they have enough sense to realize we're in the eye of the hurricane. Not exactly the time to get out the lawn chairs, and light the barbecue.
Stellantis offering voluntary buyouts
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You're right. Everything is dandy. Let's go back to our bread and circus.
Yes, I've said that several times now and I'm not defending the outrageous spending. My point is IF WE CAN RESTRAIN ourselves from more outrageous spending it isn't that hard to get out of our current trouble.
Your analogy with the family isn't accurate because individuals in families and nations have two completely different sets of goals. If an individual wants to retire they have to spend most of their adult life getting rid of their debt and saving. This usually requires a significant percentage of total income over decades. People need to do this because income outside of their savings is going to stop. Nations do not have to save and they do not have to get rid of their debt because their income never stops. Not only does their income not stop but it usually goes up over time. We aren't spending $100k while only making $60k because unlike an individual who has to pay the entire amount back because their income will one day stop, National income never stops so we only really care about the actual debt service that needs to be paid in the short-term. Here's the calculus for ya:
Using your example: If that family didn't care about retiring and they were going to work until they die then making $60K and spending $100k where debt increases every year by 5% but income increases at $10% every year wouldn't be a bad deal over time. Even though debt increases every year because it's growing more slowly, it slowly becomes a smaller percentage of income. That's all we need to do - curb spending enough over time to simply grow more slowly than the increase in GDP. That's a far less daunting endeavor compared to repaying the entire $31T with zero debt.
My overall point is the national debt is already factored into the market and unless we get totally out of control it won't be a significant economic factor moving forward.
I disagree. A few critical metrics.
1. Our GDP to debt is NEGATIVE 25%. Meaning we borrow 25% more than we make and sell. Wrong direction.
2. No end is sight to debt/GDP figures. There is no reason or metric pointing to this improving; conversely, many metrics this is going to get worse.
3. Debt per tax payer is a crippling quarter million dollars each.
4. Mean incomes have stagnated for 30 years.
5. National debt is just one metric, very bad at $31 trillion. UNFUNDED Liabilities, something like 175 TRILLION DOLLARS. Debt spending is I believe 2nd or 3rd largest national expenditure. Not healthy.
6. Aging population. Exploding global population problem. If it keeps growing, not enough food/water/energy. A decline will conversely have a aging population problem with more consumers than producers.
7. It's getting harder, not easier, in society. Mass economic turmoil ahead.
8. Wars, wars, and more wars.
9. Competition for growingly scarce resources - energy, clean water, food, land.
10. Fed is stuck. Increasing interest rates accelerates debt. Decreasing causes inflation.
11. Employment issues, humans replaced by automation/robotics/AI...
Hundreds of other bad metrics.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
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That is exactly what I always did and always I did benefit from doing just that.
In the modern era with ever increasingly complex jobs and careers, which can be quickly eliminated faster than learned, this is a tall order to ask people to "learn to code." Remember about a decade ago, when "learn to code" was the rage. Guess what jobs are disappearing now with AI and automation/robotics. Coding. So one might have spent years learning to code, only to be replaced by machines.
And this is a funnel effect. As 100 career fields are replaced those individuals funnel toward say 10 remaining career fields, making those fields (already filled with employees), ultra competitive.
Example> All the coders, uber drivers, delivery drivers, and phone customer service reps are replaced by AI tomorrow. They all transition into welding. Everyone learns welding. But there's already welders, and there's not enough welding jobs for all these new entries. Then what does everyone do? It's also unrealistic to ask for mass migration of people to new locations for jobs. Very inefficient.
Humans are slowly being funneled into irrelevancy by our own policies and machines. Look at all the gutted cities in this nation, once flourishing areas of industry. Destroyed and gone. That will sweep the nation, unfortunately.
edyvw
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What else is going on that planet of yours?
edyvw
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1. Government doesn’t operate like family or business. That is antithesis to government in capitalist society.
2. Because of our unique role in post WWII world, yes we can grow debt. We don’t need to grow OUR debt as much as most of the world needs us to grow OUR debt.
Fremont fired 400 welding robots. And no severance.
It should. It's the main reason we are in the mess we're currently in. Increasing debt by constant and continuous overspending, is no healthier for a government than it is for a family.
You have countless examples in history books, of how countries went into economic failure, because their debt caught up with them. Just as you have examples in bankruptcy courts of families that did much the same. Debt is debt.
edyvw
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If the government operated like a family, you would not be able to convey this message, and actually, you would not have a computer to write on.
What mess we are in? How exactly is your life in the mess? What is exactly your definition of a mess?
Examples in history books? No you don't. No country in history has had this role in the world economy as the US has since the Bretton-Woods system.
Now, if you have read carefully or at all the Wealth of Nations, you would understand what is the role of government in capitalism
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When I can't have everything I want NOW!
Bingo. We have someone who gets it. People no longer save. If they can't borrow the money, they can't buy it. It's why families have 10 year auto loans, an average of $6K in credit card debt, and over half don't have $500 saved for an emergency.
It takes nothing but a drive home from the dealer, for them to become underwater on their car loans. Or the slightest hiccup in the real estate market to tank their home mortgages.
These people were raised and taught this type of living is the norm. Banks give them that money because they "deserve it". Our government operates much the same way. And they spend just as stupidly. This constantly rising, accumulated debt amounts to all paper and no value.
This can't and won't continue. Most of these current entitled, financial train wrecks will never see a days retirement. And when they don't they'll blame someone or something else for their own financial shortcomings.
And running around like Kevin Bacon in "Animal House", proclaiming "all is well", is simply an extension of that head in the sand, foolish thinking.
1. Government has acted totally globally and domestically irresponsibly for at least 5 decades, possibly more. NO real reigns on behavior, spending, borrowing, developing fiat currency, exporting debts, manipulating currency, punishing trade partners with fiat currencies, gross military violations globally, and on and on. The bill is coming due. No business or family would have gotten away with this for so long. Read a newspaper. Half the world is aligning against the US as I type. The US is 5% of the world, not the majority. A real economic pain is on our horizon.
2. Debt is not a good thing. It can be a beneficial brief tool, kept in control and reliably repaid as leverage. Nobody in the world now believes the US can repay our debt, will respect the dollar, and not devalue the dollar by printing more. All we have done for decades is export debt with fake money, and print more that devalues it.
Other nations are rational actors. If your neighbor did this in your dealings, and sold you a "rare autographed original Mickey Mantle" baseball card at a high premium, and you found out he makes them as forgeries in his basement and sells them around town, you'd soon stop dealing with him. As would the entire town. Same thing happening now on the global scale. Look up this stuff. Half of the globe, Brazil, Russia, India, China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, S. Africa, N. Korea, Pakistan, and now France and some other nations are all aligning against the US, trading in non-dollars, foreign currency, or bartering with each other and cutting the US out.
It is literally shocking so few people understand this economics 101 lesson.
So you've met my wife? I have to remind her everytime North Korea is in the news that no, we aren't going to die from a nuclear attack and yes, I would absolutely want to die instantly if that is the case. She doesn't understand why living through a nuclear winter would be horrible even with all the movies depicting such. Good times
edyvw
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Every time I hear this, I expect an explanation of what exactly Adam Smith meant when he wrote the Wealth of Nations and the role of government in capitalism. So, here is your chance.
Debt isn't debt. Govt debt is sovereign debt payable in currency of that sovereign. Countries in the past which went into BK did so because they were on some version of a gold standard which doesn't exist today. The USG could pay off total outstanding debts tomorrow if it wanted to and then tax much of that money out of the system
Yes, the debt must be controlled and yes it has been out of control but for the reasons already given no, moving forward, it should not work like businesses/families.
No, based on the current GDP we could not repay the entire debt today but thankfully we don't have to because that's not how it works. We only need to pay the debt service, which we can do, and while the $30T will be repaid in some form or another over the coming years, it will be repaid at the percentage of a growing and larger GDP.
This is literally from Economics 101, which I just finished, and this is what we talked about. Again, not defending overspending but the national debt does not work like personal and business debt.
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