You could have a general moan about the US reliance on debt (both through consumerism and government waste, such as its military burden). Its true that the US economy has significant structural flaws. The problem of course is that, except for some of the progressives, they would find the solution unpalatable. Better to just whinge and whine!
That won't be enough. You'd need to find a means to significantly reduce inequalities, rather than just reduce the unlevel playing field.
FY 2017 ended on 09/29/2017 with our government reporting a total debt of $20,244,900,016,053.51 FY 2018 Mo 01 debt now $20,442,473,549,889.39 a monthly change of $197,573,533,835.88 FY 2018 Mo 02 debt now $20,590,391,942,312.26 a monthly change of $147,918,392,422.87 FY 2018 Mo 03 debt now $20,492,746,546,193.75 a monthly change of −$97,645,396,118.51 FY 2018 Mo 04 debt now $20,493,729,921,939.72 a monthly change of ...... $983,375,745.97 FY 2018 Mo 05 debt now $20,855,671,542,905.95 a monthly change of $361,941,620,966.23 FY 2018 Mo 06 debt now $21,089,642,954,195.85 a monthly change of $233,971,411,289.90 FY 2018 Mo 07 debt now $21,068,200,197,433.39 a monthly change of −$21,442,756,762.46 FY 2018 Mo 08 debt now $21,145,215,185,726.27 a monthly change of ..$77,014,988,292.88 FY 2018 Mo 09 debt now $21,195,069,635,322.81 a monthly change of ..$49,854,449,596.54 FY 2018 Mo 10 debt now $21,313,061,060,202.36 a monthly change of $117,991,424,879.55
This thread was started for no reason other than to provide data showing our Federal debt change each month. My expectation was that it would be a 12 post thread. Any conversation or debate about the debt should then result in the creation of another thread with the OP setting a context for discussion/debate to follow. My thread title states it to be "simply tracking the FY 2018 debt" noting that not everyone pays it much attention. The Federal debt has increased $21,284,580,588,348.17 since my birth.
As I said, I'm providing a source of data for quick and easy access. Feel free to apply it in a thread with a context of your liking, and I might even respond to those who post in it who are not on my ignore list, which you are on so further response in this thread will likely be a waste of your time, but not mine.
Data without context is always useless. You might as well be plugging in distances you walked your pet Yorkie
FY 2017 ended on 09/29/2017 with our government reporting a total debt of $20,244,900,016,053.51 FY 2018 Mo 01 debt now $20,442,473,549,889.39 a monthly change of $197,573,533,835.88 FY 2018 Mo 02 debt now $20,590,391,942,312.26 a monthly change of $147,918,392,422.87 FY 2018 Mo 03 debt now $20,492,746,546,193.75 a monthly change of −$97,645,396,118.51 FY 2018 Mo 04 debt now $20,493,729,921,939.72 a monthly change of ...... $983,375,745.97 FY 2018 Mo 05 debt now $20,855,671,542,905.95 a monthly change of $361,941,620,966.23 FY 2018 Mo 06 debt now $21,089,642,954,195.85 a monthly change of $233,971,411,289.90 FY 2018 Mo 07 debt now $21,068,200,197,433.39 a monthly change of −$21,442,756,762.46 FY 2018 Mo 08 debt now $21,145,215,185,726.27 a monthly change of ..$77,014,988,292.88 FY 2018 Mo 09 debt now $21,195,069,635,322.81 a monthly change of ..$49,854,449,596.54 FY 2018 Mo 10 debt now $21,313,061,060,202.36 a monthly change of $117,991,424,879.55 FY 2018 Mo 11 debt now $21,458,849,674,105.03 a monthly change of $145,788,613,902.67
Many people are careless with debt and most ALL people do not care about government debt...out of site out of mind...
You miss the point: personal and government debt cannot be compared. Throwing out numbers, without providing context, pretends otherwise.
We can compare apples and oranges so we can compare personal and public debt. The type of debt are different but the root philosophy is the same; borrowing from the future to pay the present. Don't know about your side of the pond but in the USA it is rare to find anyone not using debt money. It's so common that few give it any thought, and this is what carries over to public debt...almost no one cares!
Looks like we have another case of musical chairs. Republicans are off the debt threads but when they are on, they are trying to justify it. Democrats are the deficit hawks. It was the reverse a few years ago. Just proves that Americans love going into debt and only talk fiscal responsibility for political convenience.
I think given the current deficit you should tax more if you are going to spend more. Agree that the rule doesn't apply to every possible situation but I do think it applys now and probably quite a ways into the future. That by the way is not to say that any deficit is bad or that having a balanced budget is a good idea.
It would arguably be good to increase progressivity in order to ensure more redistribution. Inequalities often harm economic activity after all. The trouble is that you get folk abusing the Laffer Curve (which is often multipeaked and justifies tax increases)
Lets not get into the Laffer curve. It is really much more a hypothesis than a fact. A search for proof of the Laffer Curve is a fruitless exercise. And While the thought that inequality often harms economic activity is appealing not sure you can produce aby real evidence.
Since that article isn't available try again. Sorry but is that article supposed to prove the Laffer Curve. The abstract certainly doesn't and the article itself is unavailable.