Turns out countries with constitutions forbidding excessive debt are quite smart. It's like phone addiction -- if the parents don't lead by example and strictly enforce "no phones at the dinner table" then slowly it's just gonna creep back in and everyone's just staring at their phones again.

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gradus_ad a day ago | parent | next [-]

Debt is easy to deal with for a sovereign. Just dilute the currency. That will obviously happen before a debt crisis is allowed to materialize. And so the rich will get richer.

The real problem is not the debt, but the social instability caused by the measures taken to address the debt.

	▲	wongarsu 20 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This would also make countries that constituionally prevent that level of debt look smart. At least if we see the state as an institution that should serve its citizens. If taking on debt requires making your citizens worse off to the point that it causes social instability that didn't serve them very well If you see the state as an institution to allow the rich and powerful to extract resources from the rest of the population, then it's all fine. Just take out some debt to give a contract to your nephew, then pay it back by devaluing the currency

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Synthetic7346 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Not working so well for Germany

https://youtu.be/ajH6YVhdOZU?is=Xht8Qsd_eGqnS7wW

	▲	wongarsu a day ago \| parent [-]
		In the short term it will always look stupid. Borrowing allows you to invest, which leads to growth, which allows you to borrow more. But debt also accumulates, and usually faster than GDP growth. Until debt servicing starts eating your budget. Which is a slowly encroaching killer I find it difficult to draw conclusions just yet. Yes, Germany is under-investing and that hurts. But with another 20 years of hindsight it might look like the lesser evil