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| Debt | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 17 2008, 02:05 PM (194 Views) | |
| cool story bro | Sep 17 2008, 02:05 PM Post #1 |
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Let me makes things clear first...I don't want to turn this into a liberal vs conservative debate or anything of the sort. In fact, I have no particular view on the subject, which is why I'm making this topic. The United States government is in debt. A lot of debt, billions (trillions?) of dollars, and it's growing exponentially every day. What the hell is going to happen? Can we just go on in debt forever and nobody will care? Will there be some sort of major economic collapse? Will the debt slowly be paid off? I honestly have no idea what is going to happen...could having a debt this huge be considered normal? Is there something I'm missing here? Although this is more a question than a debate, I'm curious to see what other people think of this problem, which is why I made the topic here. Thoughts? |
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| Yzarc | Sep 17 2008, 02:14 PM Post #2 |
Coxian
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Debt meant more back in the day when the greenback actually represented gold. But now that we're off the gold standard, money is only worth what most people think it's worth, which is the fundamental ground for modern economics. So here we have the problem of how much the dollar is worth. The dollar used to be amazing, but now the Euro is raping it of course, mainly because people have less faith in the American economy, mainly due to our trillion dollar deficit. It may seem weird, but this cycle of boom and bust is pretty consistent. Every time the economy begins to do really really well, something happens to make it all fall apart. The 1920's and the 1880's were really awesome, but the 1930's sucked and the 1890's sucked. Well, we just got out of an economic boom: Technology increase, War in Iraq (wars are great for the immediate economy - Got us out of the Great Depression) There was the dot com insanity in the early 90's and then things settled down, and now we're getting raped again. It's not really a doubt in anyone's mind anymore - we're in a recession, and a pretty big one at that. The direct cause of this is kind of unclear, but it's just part of the continuous cycle that is our economy. I'm willing to wager that the ridiculous national debt has something to do with it. And if I'm wrong, we're in for an even harder time in the future, because someone's gonna have to pay that shit off, and by "someone" I mean "Americans" |
  
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| Nick | Sep 17 2008, 05:24 PM Post #3 |
Brit
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Everyone owes one another money. We're in debt, although nowhere near as much as you guys. Third-world countries owe us money because our Government is keener on lending them money and then having them pay it back with interest when nothing improves than handing it out (we should just start giving the rest of the world all our money; we've proven that we can't do fuck with it, so why not let someone else have a go?). David Mitchell raised an excellent point on Mock the Week recently (a British topical satire panel show) - wouldn't it just be so tempting to just backspace the 'debt' numbers out? You know, just take a 1984 approach and remove all documented evidence of problems. And then just pretend it never happened. These spineless democratic fair-rules nations can't do anything! |
| jesus somebody get onto msn | |
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| Shinobi | Sep 17 2008, 06:03 PM Post #4 |
絶望した！！！
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i have a question. and i am being serious. how exactly did we get so far into debt in the first place? i mean, when did we borrow the money and who do we owe it to? |
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| Soja | Sep 17 2008, 06:32 PM Post #5 |
Gentle Water, Crashing Waves
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The government has borrowed from private entities. This means private financiers. In some cases, from other countries. It's a clusterfuck of loopholes and economic legalese, but it's basically like taking out a loan on a gigantic and international scale. I agree with Yzarc. This kind of thing happens on a cyclical basis. Like he said, I don't see any clear cause for our current situation, though everyone has been focused on energy independence lately. That part makes sense; a large part of the U.S. economy revolves around transporting goods. When the fuel costs went up, so did the overhead for these goods. This is on top of the whole lol housing market collapse, which is good for buyers but really bad for homeowners, who just lost a chunk of their house's value and will have a hard time selling it for a desirable price now. The bailout on AIG today doesn't help a bit. I forget how many billions we just spent on saving the firm, but make no mistake--the taxpayers get to foot the bill. |
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| Serene | Sep 23 2008, 12:51 PM Post #6 |
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I think I can help a bit with this We currently owe about 9.7 Trillion in debt. About 5.7 Trillion is debt that we the united states citizens owe. 44% of the 5.7 Trillion is held by foreign companies and people. In other words Foreigns will get the cash when we pay up. Japan and China own 47% of that 44% It is also projected that by Spring of 09 we will have over 10 Trillion dollars. Personaly I think we shouldn't be giving out money since we owe this much already, but if we don't and everything crumbles it could be worse |
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| Sentenal | Sep 23 2008, 04:03 PM Post #7 |
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but the US has just about always had a large national debt. Like back in the 1996, the national debt was like 5 trillion dollars. The problem with the debt right now, is that its about doubled since then. So really the problem isn't that we have a large national debt, because we have had a huge one for a while now, but that its at a point where its growing at crazy speeds. The economy does go in cycles, and we are due for a recession about now, but after the coming recession, it will get better again. Its just how it works. |
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| Soja | Sep 23 2008, 04:43 PM Post #8 |
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Gentle Water, Crashing Waves
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If the rescue plan they're mulling over in congress goes through, we're looking at another $700 billion tacked onto that number. |
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