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
Billions of people loan you money, indirectly. You might be among them.
Lets say you have a lot of money, more than you need in the short term, but you want more money in the long run. You stick it in the bank. The bank lends it out to people who need a lot of money now, but can be trusted to pay it back, plus interest, over an extended period. A government that has never missed a payment is a great example.
So banks, pension funds, sometimes other governments, they love buying US debt.
Is the debt a problem? It costs more money in the long run, so it’s only worth it if the short term investment grows the tax income or reduces long term expenditure by more than the interest.
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