WILL THE DEBT TRANSLATE INTO POORER AMERICANS?
WE ARE GOING TO REALIZE THAT THE DEBT IS NOT MEANINGLESS
For decades many have been warning of the dangers of the growing national debt. We have heard from many that we owe it to ourselves or that it is just a number without any relevance. The only real consequence has been the depreciating buying power of the dollar, indicated by continuous rising prices.
It seems the consequences of the debt are now becoming relevant in that some kind of adjustment is going to be made to either eliminate this debt, mandate a balanced budget or some other real dealing with this debt. Every real policy to control or eliminate this debt is going to be financially painful for everyone.
It is estimated that every man, women and child 's share of the debt is over $106,000. Every households share is $273,567. Of course, probably at least half the households in America do not have a positive net worth, so the share would fall on those who do have a positive net worth, which could translate into twice that number.
Of course, we are not going to correct this situation by directly having Americans kick in their share of the debt, but we can expect that it is going to cost us all, in one way or another.
To default on the debt would be a decrease in the investment value that is tied to pensions, 401Ks and bank accounts of all Americans who have any savings or investments. While a direct default is unlikely, some sort of measures are going to be taken to deal with this debt in the very near future.
The ability of the federal government to engage in deficit spending is coming to an end and that alone will translate into less money flowing from government to individuals. That would be a fix on the growing of the debt.
Then there is matter of servicing the existing debt, the interest is going to become the biggest budget item in the near future. That is going to require more creative management, like devaluing the dollar, which will make all dollar holders poorer, but increase the ability of the government to pay off debt.
This could be done by revaluing the dollar at some extreme dollar to gold ratio, like $40,000 an ounce, then the debt could be paid off with gold. It would be actually an accounting gimmick, but it would wipe out the debt and no one would have much recourse but to take the payoff and assume the loss of purchasing power of their investment. It would result in the inability of the government to sell more debt, which may be a good thing. The government would be required to act in financially sound way in the future. It would sort of be a national bankruptcy that would pay off the creditors with devalued dollars, actually at least fair to all in the return on investment would be equal, but less value.
It will most likely be a combination of all these ideas and more, but the result will be an end to the deficit spending inflationary cycle and will result in most Americans becoming poorer, but possibly with a more stable economic future and the avoidance of an overall economic collapse.
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