Do we have a Debt problem?

[MEfree]

Do you consider the growing national debt of the USA (and other countries) a problem or is deficit spending a good thing that benefits you?

I just finished reading Our Ecological Footprint and one of my takeaways from the book is that a growing federal debt (in $) is not the only debt we are passing onto our kids- aka, our society is spending more ecological capital (i.e. natural resource, emissions, etc.) than the Earth naturally replenishes.  Like a growing National debt, there is a lag time before the effects are felt.

Who views the Earth's resources as an essential element of a vibrant economy and good quality of life?  Will less available resources ultimately big a bigger burden on future generations than the Federal debt?

What do you see as the best way to address this problem?

[saevel25]

In Engineering it is called "sustainability"

Debt isn't as bad as you might think. It is timing that matters the most. A lot of people slam Keynesian economics. What most people don't realize is that Keynesian economics was meant to have debt spending in hard times, but then run a surplus in good times. Basically it keeps leverage constant. Leverage is the ability to buy goods. Businesses take out a loan to get started, or to expand. They are harnessing leverage now, then pay it off later after they grow. So in tough times you leverage using debt, in good times you don't leverage because you don't need to.

What has the US government done. Good times or Bad times, SPEND SPEND SPEND SPEND.

Yes it is a problem.

[newtogolf]

People typically equate government debt with personal debt, it's very different.  Our government shouldn't be in debt to the level they are but it's not anywhere near as problematic as personal debt.

The problem today is the interest payments plus money spent as part of the budget (military, entitlements, etc) continues to increase while the number of taxpayers continues to decrease.  To fix the problem, you either need to reduce the debt to lower the interest payments, cut the budget or increase taxes or some combination or the above.

For the last 6 years no one has wanted to make the sacrifices required to do the right thing for the country so the government has just printed more money to fill the void.  For every additional dollar we print that isn't printed to replace existing currency we devalue the dollar internationally.

At some point the global economy will have to adjust to all the additional currency that's been printed and the result will be potentially record high levels of inflation and that is when the real problems will start.

[Phil McGleno]

So instead of rules discussions youre just going to talk about politics now? OK. I think we have a debt problem, but I dont agree that it's like personal debt.-Let's stop giving out so much money and spending it on people who won't ever actually try to work.-Sucks that my tax money, my kids tax money, is paying for the losers that both of us went to school with to pop out more kids and sit on their asses.