What will the deficit do to the United States?

[trenton]

I am concerned about the future prospects of this country.  It looks like the national deficit is always a background issue waiting with serious consequences.  It has worsened substantially since COVID-19.  Given how this issue is not being effectively tackled, it looks like the only alternative is to know what is coming if the United States continues to overspend.

Is there a realistic way to balance the budget?

If not, what are the consequences of ignoring this issue?

Are the consequences bad enough to justify moving to another country and converting to a different currency?

Interesting fact: the U.S. Was once free of debt thanks to Alexander Hamilton raising taxes, curtailing government spending, and selling federal land.  The deficit started up again with the civil war and became more severe with the great depression and world wars.  These events were the start of overspending.

[Willie]

Clinton was the last president with a balanced budget. There isn’t a realistic way to balance it again that I’m aware of. As a country, we’re basically the stereotype of a person with no awareness of budgeting at all who just relies on a credit card for everything. But our credit limit doesn’t exist, it seems. So it keeps being ignored. So it keeps getting worse. 

[No Self]

 

[aurum]

22 hours ago, trenton said:

I am concerned about the future prospects of this country.  It looks like the national deficit is always a background issue waiting with serious consequences.  It has worsened substantially since COVID-19.  Given how this issue is not being effectively tackled, it looks like the only alternative is to know what is coming if the United States continues to overspend.

Is there a realistic way to balance the budget?

Yes!

For one, we have to stop creating money with interest.

The more money is created with interest, the more debt will accumulate.

Second thing is you have to "destroy" money.

Money = debt. That's how it's created. They're a flipside of the same coin.

Cancel all debt tomorrow and all the money in the world would be gone.

One potential way to "destroy" money would be to assign it negative interest.

Over time, that money would decay and die.

New money could then be created, but it would also decay and eventually die.

Another option is that people need to go on some sort of debt strike. Decide that we want it canceled. Debt is just an agreement, it could be gone tomorrow if everyone agreed on it.

Also, we are spending so much money on things that we should not be spending money on. Our priorities are all out of whack.

Taxes can help too, although only so much.