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For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

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41–50 of 54 posts

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#41
post #15

History doesn't repeat but it rhymes. Roman emperors starting with Marcus Aurelius began devaluing their currency to pay for endless war, and to a lesser extent, free bread; i believe that is the principle cause of the decline of Roman empire.

It is more of the endless civil wars they had. See the Crisis of the Third Century when every military regional commander revolted and marched on Rome. Even during times of peace e.g., during Augustus time, they would pass laws trying to stop people from amputating their son's thumbs to avoid conscription.

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#42
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be irrational. Even the UK and France spend 2% of GDP on defense, and they live under America's shield. Cutting our spending down to their level would save $400 billion/year. That's not peanuts, but that's only 1/3 of the deficit. Having sufficient capacity for violence is indispensable for the existence of a state. You need a military so you can kill people in other countries, and you need police so you c…

Who would ever want to invade the US? You would be destroying nearly everything of value because half the US economy is based on financial services. And it would make middle eastern insurgencies seem like childs play compared to the 10x higher gun ownership rate with better and more modern firearms in the US with a far higher percentage of practiced shooters and veterans.

> Who would ever want to invade the US?

Effectively, no one. The CCP doesn’t have the logistics capability or manpower to manage the largest occupation in the history of the world from half a world away.

They can and do want to destabilize American hegemony, but that doesn’t necessitate an end to the American state. My read is they prefer something like the British model for ex-imperials.

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#43
post #16

good thing the current administration was basically elected to fix it. how's that going?

[flagged]

Kushner is neck deep in Saudi money, Trump is taking plane-bribes from the Qataris, and their crypto schemes pave an open road into their wallets… obviously the problem is Zionists.

Pay no attention to who has oil, how American oil interests — much less obvious ones as ancient as Bushes and Cheney — shape policy, forget the size of the economies or how many billionaires are in each category, openly splashing cash at POTUS. Numbers, boo.

Forget 9/11, do not look at Afghanistan the US was never there, ignore bribes from regional powers. Zionism is the real threat.

You see, The Elders from the malaria ridden unwanted leftover chunks of Jordan’s immaculate creation are pulling the strings of Great Satan. They do it through ‘elite donors’, donors so elite the Heritage Foundation has taken over an entire branch of the American government and in parallel obfuscated foreign funding to “elite” Universities has plagiarist anti-semites with deplorable ideologies smirking in Congress while explaining why The Intifada needs to be more present in American cities and schools. Natural conclusions of The Zionist plot. o_o

The interesting thing about name calling is that where attention is being pointed away from is often more important than the target. Logs and splinters… you know, from that Bible people used to pretend to have read, about an uppity Jew.

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#44
post #43
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Kushner is neck deep in Saudi money, Trump is taking plane-bribes from the Qataris, and their crypto schemes pave an open road into their wallets… obviously the problem is Zionists . Pay no attention to who has oil, how American oil interests — much less obvious ones as ancient as Bushes and Cheney — shape policy, forget the size of the economies or how many billionaires are in each category, openly splashing cash at…

Zionism is indeed the real threat.

Miriam Adelson, Sheldon Adelson, Larry Ellison gave Trump hundreds of millions during his campaign to ensure this war happened.

Netanyahu visited Trump 7 times leading up to this war in Iran.

Every geopolitical expert on this topic has weighed in on it concluding it was obviously a move that only benefits Israel and weakens the US on the global stage.

There were 2 checks on Israel’s power in the Middle East: Iraq and Iran.

It is no coincidence that the USA has invaded both.

After Iran falls, Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. They have ambitions to dominate the entire region, including Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Egypt. Just Google “greater Israel project”.

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#45
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you can also raise taxes. The deficit is 4% of GDP. If we raised taxes by 4% of GDP, we'd still be less than the OECD average. We'd be the same as Australia, which is the second lowest-tax Anglosphere country.

We are spending 3 trillion extra dollars than we take in taxes per year. That means taxes would go up by 75 percent. Even then it doesn’t matter because we will spend even more. Everyone agrees to spend, no one agrees to cut

I must have been looking at old data, but it looks like $1.9 trillion in FY2026. So that's 6.5% of GDP rather than 4% like I said above. Taxes as a percentage of GDP is currently about 25%, so going up to 31.5% would be a 26% jump. Not great, but not catastrophic.

But I agree that if we raised taxes we would just spend more. :(

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#46
post #36
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be irrational. Even the UK and France spend 2% of GDP on defense, and they live under America's shield. Cutting our spending down to their level would save $400 billion/year. That's not peanuts, but that's only 1/3 of the deficit. Having sufficient capacity for violence is indispensable for the existence of a state. You need a military so you can kill people in other countries, and you need police so you c…

Re: "You can't have state-funded preschool if you don't have a state" - USA is protected by two immense oceans right and left and two huge, weak and pliable neighbors up and down. From all sides USA is well protected without spending hundreds of billions anually. About ballistic missiles threat - USA already has 1,200 nuclear warheads deployed in various forms (submarine, air force, ground silos) so MADD takes care o…

I agree the US could take care of its defense needs with 2% of GDP. But that would be a 40% cut, not a 90% cut. What we wouldn't be able to do is commit to protecting Europe or backstopping global capitalism.

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#47
post #46
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: "You can't have state-funded preschool if you don't have a state" - USA is protected by two immense oceans right and left and two huge, weak and pliable neighbors up and down. From all sides USA is well protected without spending hundreds of billions anually. About ballistic missiles threat - USA already has 1,200 nuclear warheads deployed in various forms (submarine, air force, ground silos) so MADD takes care o…

I agree the US could take care of its defense needs with 2% of GDP. But that would be a 40% cut, not a 90% cut. What we wouldn't be able to do is commit to protecting Europe or backstopping global capitalism.

> What we wouldn't be able to do is commit to protecting Europe or backstopping global capitalism.

We voted "America First" just recently. The 10% of the current budget should be enough to protect us against Canada and Mexico... except of course that budget is not for defense...

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only problem that exists is spending too much money. They could fix this overnight if people were willing to give up public entitlements and healthcare support. But they aren’t willing to so the US will eventually see hyper inflation or less likely bankruptcy

Taxes can always be raised before going bankrupt.

Taxes would have to go up so dramatically that people would completely be protesting in the streets and rioting. Governments always just print more money instead. Which is why we are at the spot we are at.

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxes can always be raised before going bankrupt.

Taxes would have to go up so dramatically that people would completely be protesting in the streets and rioting. Governments always just print more money instead. Which is why we are at the spot we are at.

They would not have to go up that much.

Re: For first time since World War II, US national debt now larger than its economy

#50
post #15

History doesn't repeat but it rhymes. Roman emperors starting with Marcus Aurelius began devaluing their currency to pay for endless war, and to a lesser extent, free bread; i believe that is the principle cause of the decline of Roman empire.

It is more of the endless civil wars they had. See the Crisis of the Third Century when every military regional commander revolted and marched on Rome. Even during times of peace e.g., during Augustus time, they would pass laws trying to stop people from amputating their son's thumbs to avoid conscription.

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