To whom? When did we start keeping track? What does it practically mean as I image it will never be paid back?
In: Economics
It’s not conceptually different than a person being in debt – be it credit card debt, a mortgage, or student loans.
The US GDP is about 25 trillion dollars, and it’s 31 trillion in debt. A little more than a year of its income. It would be like a person that makes $50,000 a year having $60,000 in total debt (between car / mortgage / etc).
A fixed amount of US money must go to paying down interest on that debt, just like you have minimum credit card payments.
The way you pay down that debt is either to make more money (ie, grow the US economy) or to cut spending and pay down the principal (ie, cut military or social benefits).
>To whom?
The US raises money by issuing bonds – a promissory note that it will be paid back, with interest. These bonds are sold to the general public, because they are low-risk investments.
They make up a large part of people’s 401k/retirement accounts. Investors buy them, companies buy them, foreign entities buy them.
They’re not really different than any other savings account or stock asset.
>When did we start keeping track?
1835 was the last time the US government had zero debt. We’ve been keeping track since.
Latest Answers