Thank You

[Red Devil]

"How can I be out of money???  I still have checks I can write..."

[mrtwosheds]

11 Trillion dollars of debt? Do you have any idea how much that is?  shocked

That could take centuries to repay!!!!

To understand what is actually happening here you need the answers just one question.
Who are they borrowing it from?

The answer is... Us. All of us!

They go to some big financial institution, it literally just writes big numbers into their account, money that did not exist before is just created as a loan. Governments then spend it on us. (or themselves frequently)
In return for this rather daft favour they agree to pay some interest back to the institution (who's only real cost so far is some ink!) with taxpayers money.
Unfortunately the consequence of  making up money like this is relativistic, that is, the total world wealth does not change at all!
Every billion wished into existence this way slightly devalues the Dollar, pound or rupee in your pocket...The trick is in not letting it effect your currency as much as someone else's.

So really this is just a back-door way of taxing us more.
Or to put it more bluntly, The money is stolen from everyone, the banks get a cut, the governments then spend it on whatever they want to. Its a great system if your the government of a rich nation, it allows you to suck the lifeblood of poorer nations without them noticing you doing it, have low taxation and have loads of money to waste on your pet daft political causes.

So its not so much a measure of your debt, more a measure of how much your government has stolen from everyone for you.
You will not be crippled by paying it back, because the people it was taken from don't know you took it, The banks will write the debt off eventually in return for lending  them some more made up money the same way.

Oh and a few million poor sods will die from starvation or war because their economy's collapsed under the strain of this Grand Theft Financial.

[Red Devil]

So, what would be your solution, MTS?

*drumroll*

[bigbadbogie]

COMMUNISM!!! 

[mrtwosheds]

My solution to what? money is not real, those numbers simply record the current rate of government scamming.
It is a form of communism and as usual the redistribution is from the poor to the rich.
The real wealth of a nation should be a measure of real things it produces or maybe its average waist size...

The best thing the US could do to improve its economy would be to concentrate on growing the assets that made it a wealthy nation in the first place...Trees! 

[AHadley]

You know, I think he's on to something here

[Nielk1]

AND CUT THE DAMN THINGS DOWN!

Forest files are so bad because we don't cut down the damn trees. We even prevent light natural files, so as a result the forests overgrow and then when it gets just a little bit dry they turn into dangerous tinderboxes.

Can't we pay off the debt with electronic zeros just like how we made it?

[Mr X]

For this year's budget our government here in the UK borrowed loads of money knowing full well that it probably wouldn't be paid back.

:headdesk:

[bigbadbogie]

So did the Australian government.

I guess the Europeans probably did too...

[TheJamsh]

this is why we have governments and what-not

they (allegedly) sort out all the big problems so i dont have to

[Red Devil]

So, what would be your solution, MTS?

*drumroll*

I was expecting something more along the lines of.....this, but trees will do nicely. 

[mrtwosheds]

The term borrowed should really be spelt "borrowed", eg I used a pair of bolt croppers and permanently "borrowed" his bike.

Yes Trees! The renewable resource used to make a huge range of products. American Trees grown by the most deforested nation on Earth. Wealth is real, money is not. You can make yourself very poor by destroying a wealth of real resources in order to make allot of money. America's poverty can be clearly seen from space!

[sabrebattletank]

Oh, and to those British out there: you're welcome.

Lend-Lease, Marshall plan... the list goes on.

[sabrebattletank]

Who are they borrowing it from?

I believe the question should be "Whom are they borrowing it from?"

Let us talk like civilized people here.

[TheJamsh]

this forum is turning into timevirus' forum.