Originally Posted by banerjek
Instead of looking at it as a % of GDP, how about as a % of the federal budget? The fact of the matter is that every dollar spent servicing interest cannot be spent on other things. Right now, it works out to just shy of $30K for every man, woman, and child. While borrowing $30K per head can be smart if it improves your future (i.e. investments in infrastructure and things that increase productive capacity are a good idea), not worrying about the problem until a target number is reached ain't wise because then things cost much more than they would otherwise and it's harder to borrow for things that make sense.
I understand that, but it is our GDP (our national INCOME) which is going to pay off our national DEBT, so that is why I use that measure. In fact, debt is a balance sheet item, so really we should compare our national debt to our national ASSETS. But the Fed government doesn't have a balance sheet, so we can't do that.
I agree about the target number issue. ITs like saying....."HEY MAN LETS BE COOL AND KEEP WALKING FORWARD! IF WE SEE THE CLIFF WE CAN ALWAYS TURN AROUND WHEN WE SEE THE ABYSS!"
roughstuff