Like how does it affect the average citizen on a day-to-day basis?
Why do we have a national debt in the first place (as presumably the richest country in the world)? Who lends us the money, and do we have to pay them back?
Also, as I understand it, we can’t really get rid of the national debt, but we can slow down the amount of spending. Why does the rate of our debt accumulation matter?
If we’re already trillions in debt, what difference would it make at this point to spend indefinitely to improve our country?
In: Economics
I have always maintained that national debt is one of the worst by-products of Western democracies. When the elected head of state stays only 4 to 8 years in power, his only interest is to optimize the short term. There are few very rare exceptions such as Clinton in the US who decided to leave a legacy of budgetary reductions, but most of the time, the image our rules is best served by ever increasing debt. In Europe – where they created one of the most undemocratic institutions ever – the European Central Bank – who yields an enormous amount of power and whose leaders are appointed by a completely opaque process that is not subject to any scrutiny – have actually managed to curb debt by imposing rigorous control over member states. It is simply that democracy and debt go hand in hand.
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