Quote:
Originally Posted by Tully Mars
Wonder if the US is ever going to start living within it's means?
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This is going to depend a great deal on the next year or so. Clearly it's become a lot more difficult to live in denial, but does that mean that we can change to a more responsible national lifestyle? I honestly wish I knew, but at this point it could go either way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tully Mars
Any one with financial experience have any thoughts on your debt? What the dollar value might be in the near future?
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When you say "your debt" you mean the national debt and not personal debt, right?
If you mean the national debt, assuming things continue on their current course there will be a breaking point where it's no longer prudent to invest in the US and things start to free-fall. This free fall will be the great American bubble burst. Future generations will use this as their prime example of economic failure in a modern society for generations the way we might use Russia.
As far as personal debt, I don't really have any. I bought my house from a family member and was able to pay it off quickly enough, I own my car, furniture, electronics, etc. Sure, I have small credit card debt, but I pay it off completely every month. Right now I think there's a $30 dinner charge from Aquis (great restaurant, if you're ever in San Jose you should stop by) on my Visa and I'll pay that off when my next payment is due. That's it. I'd be a massive hypocrite if I had a lot of debt, considering how often I speak out against the debt system. I don't think debt and credit should exist at all. If I remember correctly, the size of the Credit Default Swaps market is about $64t and the GDP of the entire planet is about $56t. If that's not an indication that there's a big problem, I don't know what is. I understand that people are raised in an economic reality that includes debt and credit as necessities, but they enable the kind of insane economic problems that we're seeing right now so effectively. So long as people—and governments—have the option of spending money they don't have, they will do so. It's not even a matter of people not being responsible, because you can only expect your average person or government to be so responsible before giving into having seemingly free money. It's too much temptation, and when you combine that with really stupid economic theory, the theory that RB so eloquently outlined in the second sentence of his post above, it can only result in massive wealth inequality and instability... and substantial debt.
Edit:
here's the link for the GDP vs. CDS market statistic.