Why Americans fear the debt? - Page 2 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Everything from personal credit card debt to government borrowing debt.

Moderator: PoFo Economics & Capitalism Mods

By Salohcin
#13744386
I don't know about europeans being less worried. All those austerity measures in England wouldn't of happened if they weren't worried.

It is how the worry shows that is different. In europe there is more exposure to austerity measures than in the USA. So statements like lets cut all funding to X have more meaning.

In the USA there seems to have arisen a vocal Libertarian sentiment that is obsessed with taxes. Common rhetoric seems to be that debt and the deficit are somehow related to high taxes, and that in any way raising taxes is out of the question. It's kind of like saying "Reducing public debt is the most important thing at the moment and to prove it we'll destroy the deficit with one hand tied behind our back".
By wat0n
#13744476
Ombrageux wrote:The Americans are in a significantly worse place than Europeans with regard to debt. Overall debt levels are about the same but while the EU as a whole has about a 6% deficit (mainly at national level, with wide variations), for the US it is double at 12%.


The Americans have much more space to address the problem even if their politicians don't have the guts to (they could start by raising fuel taxes and VAT to normal levels for developed countries to begin with), Europe (as whole) on the other hand already has fairly high taxes and thus has much lesser room for addressing its fiscal imbalances.
User avatar
By Ombrageux
#13744499
Agree with Salohcin. Wat0n: I agree the US has a lot of "low hanging fruit" which could significantly improve their situation. Probably this fruit is still too high for its lowly political class in the short-term and perhaps medium-term.
By wat0n
#13744507
Indeed, but I expect the US to address these issues after the 2012 election. I guess the markets think the same, which is partly why US Treasury rates are fairly low (along with low inflation expectations).

If American politicians don't wake up by 2013, however, I think US Treasury rates will increase...
User avatar
By Panzerbox
#13744510
Well, my only concern regarding the debt is the historical precedence that has been set by former empires and kingdoms that were in debt. Spain and Rome being the two primary examples that I refer to. The Spanish Empire began to go into debt after both an increase in spending and a lack of revenue (as the population began to creak under the huge tax burden levied on them). Naturally, this hastened it's decline, and serves as an example of how debt isn't a harmless or over emphasized threat to the United States. Debt is a very real problem, and marginalizing the threat only postpones the inevitable action that has to happen to correct the problem.

Helping Ukraine to defeat the Russian invasion an[…]

https://twitter.com/huwaidaarraf/status/1773389663[…]

Israel-Palestinian War 2023

What wat0n is trying to distract from: https://tw[…]

Russia-Ukraine War 2022

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1773436787622[…]