Well what do you think? Should we worry about the National Debt or should we ignore it? According to http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/, each citizen's share of this debt is $30,202.07 as of December 17th, 2007 at 7:06 PM.
Sound off below.
Well what do you think? Should we worry about the National Debt or should we ignore it? According to http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/, each citizen's share of this debt is $30,202.07 as of December 17th, 2007 at 7:06 PM.
Sound off below.
24 comments:
Well kinda. Not really because by balancing the budget would cause more inflation. I think we shouldn't just let our government let the national debt run wild, instead we should slowly cut it out over time instead of just all at once. But most of the debt is owned by American citizens in bonds which are constantly being bought out by new ones. So I guess all and all it's not that much of a bad thing, but if we didn't have a national debt it would probably be better for most people, but i really don't know, we are doing okay right now
We should worry about national debt because even though it can be argued that the national debt will always "roll over," this is just a transfer of money. Nothing is really being solved. Also, when "rolling over" takes place, the money from the taxpayers goes to the wealthier bond holders. This, although beneficial to the bondholders, hurts the everyday taxpayer. The increasing national debt is a problem because if the debt continues to go unpaid, especially external debt, it will become a burden for future generations. If growing deficits and a lack of government control over money continues, it will eventually lead to an economic downfall.
I disagree with Michael's comment because even though most of the debt is owed to American citizens and businesses, it can still present a problem for future Americans. It still proves the national government does not have a lot of control over the economy. Just because the national government owes most of its debt to its own people, if the government becomes too powerful in regulating national debt by "crowding out" this can also lead to problems. It creates a bigger government and hurts private businesses. Future economy growth would decrease.
Jeff W
I don’t think we really have to worry about national debt. $6 trillion is an incomprehensible number, and I’m pretty sure that people would find it funny and ridiculous if they all knew they owed over $30,000. This is all because, as citizens, we don’t feel the pressure of the national debt. We’re trying to pay off war debts of generations past just as future generations will be trying to pay off out debt, but what does that mean? It means nothing to the average citizen. The theoretical “crowding out,” is a problem, but I don’t think its effects are very evident today. The debt will continue to “roll over,” and any sort of tax increase to change this will outrage people. I think that attempting to actively control the national debt is unrealistic, and the numbers and statistics that go along with it are meaningless to most people unless they’re directly affected. Therefore, I think we should just chill and keep letting it “roll.”
The national debt, although currently a huge number, is really not as big a problem as it is a dollar value. The majority of the debt is owed to americans, and can easily be rolled over with the sale of more bonds. Crowding out is not a serious problem because the government itself can spend money on capital goods or labor where private firms would have invested. The effects of a law forcing the government to balance the budget anually would be devastating, since it would exacerbate recession and amplify inflation by effectively reducing the government's ability to go into debt to counteract recession and inflation. I agree with Jefe because he pretty much said the same thing I did. His point that an increase in taxes to pay off debt would enrage the public was valid. Letting the debt roll on is probably a good solution for now, at least until obvious problems with the debt begin to show.
Yes, national debt is something to worry about. While the national debt "rolls over" it is just money being transfered. he moey goes to bondholders, or the wealthy, which hurts the majority of people. Another problem is that future generations will be burdened with our current national debt. When the bonds owed to froreigners are due people will have to pay for off these bonds out of their current incomes. That money will then go to foreign countries and not United States spending.
No Not at all, national debt is steadily increasing but it means nothing. THe money the government owes is to mostly us, the citizens. The gov spends so much on public works to make our lives better that lowering the natinoal debt will mean public works will fall apart and be forgotten. THe money owed to foreign nations is fine too becasue a nation is never going to "cash out" and as for all the money that we owe them becasue that would destroy thier eceonomy.
- JOE M
I disagree with what Michaels said because letting the national debt run wild will lead to more "Crowding out" which is a problem because when the government borrows money for deficit spending, there is less money for the private bussiness to borrow. This could lead to lower economic growth in the future.
I Like what Jeff's gettin at , i guarentee that if everyone found out that they owed 30,000 theyd start flipping out on teh governemt and then they would be even more mad at the governemt thatn usual, so things are fine the way they are
-JOE M
Yea. I'm gonna go with Jefe on this one too.
"I think we should just chill and keep letting it “roll.”"
You can't really say it much better than that.
The national debt seems like a big problem, but no country is going to pull all their money out because it would be too harmful to their economy as well as the worlds. And even if a few countries wanted their money, we could pay it back. Our projected GDP for the end of 2007 is around 14 trillion dollars(http://www.forecasts.org/gdp.htm), with the debt at only 9. The sale of more bonds and letting the debt roll over are also ways to keep it under control. Unless the debt starts to get way out of hand to the point where it excedes our GDP, it is not really something we need to worry about.
I would also like to complement MichaelS for being very specific...Well kinda...Not really...
I think we should worry about the national debt because when you consider the long term, though future generations will inherit both debts and assets of the present, by that time interest would accumulate and people would eventually be paying off the interest rather than the debt. And also, though it is argued that the debt can be rolled over it doesn't affect the interest rate which is still collecting more and more money.
I disagree with JeffW b/c every American citizen is technically "directly" affected the effect is simply spread out over the entire populous. Jeff considers it an indirect effect simply b/c he's not thinking/worrying about it. Eventually everyone will feel the effect of the national debt proportional to their relative incomes. And we can't just sit and let it "roll" because then that would lead to an unregulated economy where any drastic change could occur not excluding a severe recession. Regulators have to keep our economy in check and should take action to eliminate the debt as much as possible while maintaining economic performance.
MichaelM.... says
I feel thatwe shouldn't worry so much about the national dept because technically we never have to pay off our debt because it can be "rolled over". So when some bonds are due they can sell other bonds to pay off the due bonds. If necessary the government could just raise taxes to help pay off the dept. But if interest rates drastically increase in the future, then that means more money being spent on interest and less being spent on other things such as education, health care, and public projects.
Or politics could just stop pocketing most of the money, but thats unlikely to happen.
Paying off the national debt shouldn't be an immediate concern. The national debt is not a problem as long as it is rolled over and not allowed to get out of control. There should be limits on the sale of bonds to foreigners though, as it allows for the flow of money out of the country. Efforts should be made though to slowly cut into the payments so the interest payments do not take so much of the federal budget.
I partially agree with Jeff but he is a bro and just wants to chill. Allowing for the national debt to continuously roll will eventually increase the interest payments to really high levels.
National debt is a big problem i at the moment because as it stands, there is no way to pay it all off. Since if divided up between all americans it would be about $20,000 per person. The reason it cant be paid off is because of the bonds, which many americans own, then when these bonds are cashed new ones are formed and are never payed off. Its is just transfered all the time.
IN RESPONSE TO HAROLD K
i totally agree because, as we keep accumulating this debt, the more that is tried to be paid off in the future will be insufficient because the interest on that amount of money will be so great that we will just have to pay off the interest and by the time we get to the actual debt owed, we wont be able to pay it off. We owe it to the future generations of america to help pay off the debt now, even though its not too much of a problem.
I don't think we should worry about national debt because, right now, we are paying off debt from the past and we aren't struggling. There is no way to avoid such debt, and if we try to fix it, it will cause inflation. We should just accept it and work with it and realize that we should continue to pay debts from wars or the building of bridges or whatever, without those things, we could be stuck on Long Island.. or speaking german! Just pay your taxes kids, don't worry; be happy!
I agree with Jeff W. when he says "I think that attempting to actively control the national debt is unrealistic, and the numbers and statistics that go along with it are meaningless to most people unless they’re directly affected."
There is no way we could control the national debt, trying to would only cause more problems. We also aren't being fined 30,000, we are just paying our taxes like normal, its not that big of a deal because we really aren't seriously affected by it.
-Erik G said,
I don't think we should worry about the national debt because the debt is owed to the people and the people control the government and country so by doing this, you arn't oweing anyone money but another person who will buy a bond and to pay for the money the goverment owes another. This creates a bigger government and hurts private business'.
I agree with Jeff if they try to raise the taxes to pay back other debt people would be outraged and they wouldn't complay with it.
Brennan B
No, I don't think we should worry about the national debt because it should not effect us. The debt owed is to the American people and if people keep buying bonds there will always be money to pay to people. It will never become a factor to worry about unless everyone withdraws thier bonds. The debt will just keeping rolling over to future generations and will never truely effect us.
--I agree with Joe M, in the fact that the debt will not effect us. And also the fact that through the government spending money we benefit from it. I also agree in that the American people or foriegn countires will never "cash out" so the money owed will never all have to be payed.
December 19, 2007 10:32 AM
I think that the national debt is not really a problem that we, as citizens , should ever worry about. The government spent that money on defense or whatever, and though we obviously benefit from that, no one would ever pay up for it considering the fact that half the country was anti-war to begin with. I don't think that many would pay their share knowingly, but knowing our government they will connive it somehow. Furthermore, it isn't really a threat that we owe so much because our economy is so intertwined with other nations' and they wouldn't pull out unless they disagreed with something we're doing. And we're not doing anything too bad, right?
In response to harold and amanda's comments, I don't think future generations will really care, because look, we don't :) as interest accumulates, the number will grow, but in reality, are we paying it or will we have a reason to anyway?
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