re: #501 engineer cat

here, i’ll give you a hint - i’m a nice guy that way

first, figure out what the real financing is that is required of the united states government to finance its debt, which as a total sum has never been paid down one dollar in decades. it’s called ‘interest payments’

and then look up on the internet what percentage of the federal budget has been devoted to debt service over the past 30 years or so. you will then see that this percentage was much higher after 12 years of reagan and bush than it is now. debt is not good, and we always have far too much, but it is hardly from worse than it’s ever been and it’s far from a crisis

by the kind of accounting that you have been propogandized with, every homeowner in the country with a 30 year mortgage is desperately broke and in danger of committing financial suicide

If you think interest rates can be kept at basically zero indefinitely, well good luck. The annual deficit as a percentage of revenue is another issue - I haven’t looked for comparisons, but I suspect the US is in a worse position by this measure than just about anywhere. A lot of it is short term debt as well which has to be re-financed frequently. No doubt you have fond memories of the early eighties when treasuries were paying about 15%.
A 30 year mortgage is one thing; if you financed your house on credit cards it’s rather different.