What debt?

Most of the people that live In America have no SAY in how are tax dollars are spent. Why should the AMERICAN people pay for our own governments mistakes when the people have no control over anything? America Is in a hole that is almost impossible to dig out of and it really worries me. I didn't borrow any money from China, I don't even know anyone that lives near that country. But yet I am stuck with a debt that will affect Me and my family's future. No one seems to have a problem with this and it bothers me. Most of the time I hear " It's not my problem", "nothing I can do about it", and so on. America needs to wake up, start standing up for what is right, and work on getting out of DEBT ASAP!!! maybe we can start off by using the government salaries to start paying off this everlasting loan. I think it would be a good start

reply to post by GreenFurnNW


America has been into Debt since the 90s and even 80s and why is that? because of the occupied bases in Europe and Asia, not mention printing money out of thin air.

Americans have a very big say in how the money is spent. This is why you don't see cuts to entitlement programs. Trust me that the politicians could care less about welfare or medicare since they will never have a use for it.

However the people do and if the politician cuts it they will be out of a job very quickly so i'd say Americans are calling the shots there.

reply to post by kro32


Whoa whoa buddy... You really think Americans are calling the shots? LMAO! I assure you, we are not, & haven't ever called the shots. We, & some of the world, have been lead to believe we call the shots but with the world crisis & economic doom, it should be clear to all by now Americans are not & never have called the shots. Pretend time is over

that was hilarious americans are calling the shots.

i say we make every single congressman pay the debt back themselves.

they did it its their fault!!!

if they dont like it they are free to quit and i hear maddoff is looking for a roomate.

thats where they belong anyway behind bars or club gitmo.

i prefer club gitmo tho.

The concept of national debt is really kind of tricky.

For starters - there's no one to really "pay back." National debt is simply a comparison of how many dollars have been printed versus how many have been collected for tax purposes. It's a little more tricky than that - but that is really what it all boils down to.

So... what actually backs this 'dollar' stuff up? Really? Nothing. The only thing that backs the value of the dollar is the relative perceived value of U.S. economic activity. That is - our goods, services, raw materials, etc. And even then - there's nothing really solid backing the dollar. "Back in the day" - the dollar essentially represented a share of the silver/gold stored in the U.S. Treasury. If you went to the right authorities with a dollar bill and said: "I am exchanging this for silver" - they gave you the amount of silver that was printed on the bill.

Anyway - the way currency works, at present, what happens when the U.S. spends more money than it takes in through revenue? There are simply more dollar bills floating around for the same amount of economic activity. This may not sound so bad - but over time, you start to see the dollar lose its relative value. When there were only a billion dollars in circulation within the U.S. - a million dollars means you've got 1/1000th of the entire economic value of the U.S. However, whenever you've got 10 Trillion in circulation - a million dollars isn't nearly as big of a cut of the pie. Nor is a single dollar, for that matter.

Basically, what it all boils down to is that deficit spending and large national debts lead to inflation. Remember your grandparents talking about being sent to the store with a quarter to get a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread? You need about six dollars to do that, now. Not all inflation is due to deficit government spending - but it is a primary driving factor. Graphs showing inflation have a strong correlation with annual deficit spending by the federal government.

The economy usually reacts by 'sinking' inflationary spending into investment markets - often into real-estate and stocks. This causes 'bubbles' in the markets that eventually collapse. I should elaborate a little - the economy reacts somewhat defensively with the effect being a preservation of food and commodity expenses. Food prices through the 2000s didn't change much until after the housing market burst (also accompanied by an increase in minimum wage justified by the increased housing expenses in the market). Now, food and textile prices are set to go up because the markets are now flooded with dollars that were previously tied up in real-estate investments.

I expect, over the coming years, we will see an increase in popularity of third-party currency systems. I actually expect face-book to open up its own currency and payment system (or a company to link in with facebook for this purpose). Rather than getting paid in U.S. dollars - you would be paid in some kind of credits handled by a third-party system that negotiates exchange rates with banks and companies. It would likely encompass a lot of online markets, at first - but expand rapidly into stores like WalMart.

Though I am sure the Treasury and Federal Reserve would have an aneurism over it, and the IRS would start screaming to high heaven that we mandate all U.S. licensed employers pay in U.S. Dollars - I'm not quite sure how the legalities pan out on that one. By that time - the U.S. federal government may have been rendered mostly invalid due to its lack of responsible policies.

But the thing is this: America was not constructed as a democracy. It was founded as a republic, therefore the people we elect have the power to represent us, whether they do something that we agree or disagree with. We are the ones stuck with the consequences. There are some systems in place to prevent abuse from our representatives, but in the end, we are (supposedly) the ones that elected them.