The US federal deficit is growing at an alarming rate; if nothing is done, it will solve itself with inflation. US debt is denominated in USD, so the US will not default; the value of money just steadily declines until the debt burden matches the capacity of the US economy to pay for it. Also, US tax rates are relatively low, US can pay the debt by increasing tax rate if there is political will.

The country with the worst debt crisis is France. Their tax rate is 40%, they don't have their own currency (It's EUR), they have a large primary deficit and it's politically impossible to cut spending. EU must rescue France in next 4-5 years.

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dada216 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

they will raise taxes while cutting the budget. in a multiparty system there are ways to achieve politically unpalatable things. in Italy we have what we call "technical governments", we don't vote for the government, only for parliament, and they elect the government, when nobody has a clear majority they vote for a "compromise" government where they elect a prime minister that is from no party, usually an economist or someone like that, which carries out the politically unpalatable reforms, in France they will do it with a split parliament/presidency

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talon8635 21 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No political will is akin to the parent giving into the child’s tantrum

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odyssey7 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There is no political will to increase taxes in the U.S.

	▲	Marsymars 33 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You have progressive income tax brackets that don’t change with inflation, inflation is a tax increase.

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well_ackshually 24 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

>Also, US tax rates are relatively low, US can pay the debt by increasing tax rate if there is political will.

The whole point of debt is that it never gets paid. Not. a. single. country. has ever paid it off (and the few times it did happen, hundreds of thousands died). It keeps rolling forward, and gets eaten by inflation. The vast majority of "first world" countries have a 50%+ debt to GDP ratio (except when you do like Germany and manipulate the eurozone currency to your advantage) and are doing just fine. Countries have debt because people want to lend to them, because it's where things happen. Bhutan doesn't have debt, because it doesn't have the money to build it up.

>EU must rescue France in next 4-5 years.

zzzz

Can the american bots worry about their own country and their deeply ingrained problems before repeating the propaganda you read in the atlantic ? It's getting a bit boring.

	▲	u1hcw9nx 15 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		When we are talking about debt burden we are talking about debt/GDP ratio. As long as economy grows faster than cost of debt debt/GDP ratio shrinks. > The whole point of debt is that it never gets paid It's not meaningful to pay all debt. Norway could pay all debt away any time it wanted because it has so much wealth but because the cost of debt is so small, it's actually better Debt = delayed taxation. When economy grows faster than debt, delaying taxation is an investment.