is anyone concern about the US deficit?

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: Staley8
I'm not real concerned. First of all I really don't even know who we owe this money too. Secondly, do these people who we owe money to have collectors and repo people to come and get it, breaking our knee caps if we don't pay up?

No, way worse than that. The Federal Reserve is the entity that holds the most of the debt. Do you know what the Fed does? It issues all of our currency for one thing. For another thing it basically controls the entire U.S. economy. If we don't pay up the Fed could rip us a new one in a heartbeat.

Edit: the other part of the national debt is held by private individuals such as foreigners and U.S. citizens who have U.S. government bonds and securities.

just in case anyone else saw the front page story in today's wall st. journal about asian banks wanting to reduce their exposure to the US dollar. One of the tables in the article claimed that a full 37.3% of US debt is held be foreigners. Try telling them that we are going to reneg on our debt.

 

[StageLeft]

The political system in this country needs and overhaul. It's still doing better than most, but the whole thing about bending over backwards for votes befuddles otherwise correct decisions, so you have people calling for 2.4 trillion dollar budgets with a half trillion of that that won't even come in. It's idiocy.

 

[PHiuR]

Originally posted by: XZeroII

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: XZeroII

Originally posted by: Staley8
I'm not real concerned. First of all I really don't even know who we owe this money too. Secondly, do these people who we owe money to have collectors and repo people to come and get it, breaking our knee caps if we don't pay up?

You are the smartest person I know on this topic (except for me, of course). The debt is NOTHING. It means nothing. It is a 100% political tool that politicians and the media use to scare people. We could have a $5 trillion dollar deficit for the next 20 years and it would mean nothing. People who say different are just spreading misinformation.

The money is being borrowed from us, the people. It's like you owing yourself $20. What does it matter if you ever pay yourself back? NONE. The way it works is this: Rich people buy gov't bonds with the understanding that they will recieve a guarenteed rate of interest on those bonds (for those of you who don't know how bonds work). Our gov't takes that money and spends it. But where does any of this money come from? Our gov't has unlimited funds because it can simply print money whenever it wants. So whenever it needs to pay off a bond, it just wishes up some money and pays it off. Sure, it introduces extra money into our system and thus SHOULD cause inflation, but it doesn't because the money is going to people who already have billions of dollars. Inflation happens when ordinary people have more money.

This is a very dirty explanation and isn't 100% accurate, but it's how things work. The debt means nothing. It's just a number.

LMAO!! Check the national budget sometime, you will see an item called interest on the national debt, its just a SMALL TINY portion of the budget, oh yeah it happens to be the THIRD largest item on the budget. That means that your tax dollars are going to pay the interest on the national debt every year. You call this meaningless??

Inflation happens when ordinary people have money?? Where the hell did you read this? LMAO

I don't blame you for not understanding. You believe whatever is the easiest to grasp. You don't understand how money works at the global scale. Do you honestly think anyone cares about 1 trillion vs 2 trillion dollars? NO ONE. Our gov't can make money out of thin air, and that's what you don't understand. I don't expect you to understand.

xzeroii, i think youre the one that doesnt understand....
reading what you stated makes me want to hurt myself...
its total BS. the world just doesnt work like that.

 

[FoBoT]

no