eli5: Who does the US owe almost 32 trillion dollars of debt too? If it’s the most powerful nation in the world, can’t it just get rid of it?
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Most of the debt is owed to US citizens. If you’ve ever owned a US savings bond or similar, you’ve owned a portion of the US national debt.
>If it’s the most powerful nation in the world, can’t it just get rid of it?
The US borrowed money from people with the understanding that the money would be repaid in the future, plus interest. Announcing that they’re not going to repay those debts would screw over everyone who was planning on being repaid, and would destroy the US’ ability to borrow any more money in the future—because who would be dumb enough to loan their hard-earned cash to a government that can’t be trusted to repay its debts?
On top of all that, there’s a provision in the US Constitution that states that “the validity of the public debt […] shall not be questioned,” so the US couldn’t legally default on its debt even if it wanted to.
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