iNow

Premise requires confirmation / evidence

Look it up then. Why guess? This question has an answer

Right, but as evidenced right there in the subject… this was about the US Economy Wait, what? Will you please clarify what you’re trying to say here?

There’s no objective metric for this. It depends on how you measure it and who you ask. The way you’ve framed the question, however, is like “on a scale of 1 to awesome, how many chili dogs is this” and that leaves us wanting. Again… benefit for whom, and by what measure? Right, and also to others… some of whom I referenced before you made this post. Wait, what? Will you please clarify what you’re trying to say here? Again, nice try, but NO. I didn’t make a claim. I highlighted how the source you provided for yours was found lacking. Also, to repeat… I find the US military budget extremely bloated and would much prefer those expenditures redirected elsewhere. I just can’t allow such simplistic and elementary errors of thought such as yours to stand in a discussion that itself has real answers that are not opinion-based. We can spend money on other things even if we do nothing whatsoever about our bloated military budget. The debt only becomes a problem if we’re prevented from cheaply taking on more or raising revenues to reduce it. Neither of those limitations exist today, nor are they likely to present themselves at any time in the near future.

Nice try at trying to shift the burden of proof to me, but I’m not the one making the claims ergo the onus is yours. Depends on what’s being paid for and from whom it was borrowed. Was that a genuine question?

You didn’t answer my questions. Why should I answer yours? Admit it… for a brief second there you wanted to downvote me. 😂 Perhaps, or perhaps it’s a simple visual way to notify less informed / less familiar future readers that maybe the posts of this person aren’t of the same quality as posts from others such as you.

Why not both? What about when ones explanations repeatedly fall upon deaf ears and blind eyes? What about when the poster shared something truly bigoted, hateful, and foul? It’s fine if your personal religion encourages you to avoid such things, but why force that choice on to everyone else? Are we not good enough or mature enough in your opinion to be granted the freedom to use the system ourselves as we each see fit (so long as we’re not abusing the system or breaking the rules to which we all agreed upon joining the community here)?

I am fine redirecting our bloated defense budget on to better expenditures, but the opinion pieces above don’t account for jobs created in the industry nor how the people working them have invested into their communities or sent their kids to better schools to become job creators themselves, nor how the protections our military gives to our global allies improve trade treaties, etc. Anyway, this thread is about debt and while defense expenditures play a big role in that, it’s not the biggest. Its also a mistake to treat this as a zero sum game where we’re all fighting for the same one pie… or as pure cost when they’re actually investments with returns. There are surely better investments to be made, but putting money into X doesn’t mean we lack money to put into Y, especially not when we’re discussing the US government which can print money and collect additional revenue with the stroke of a pen. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/u-s-federal-governments-spending-data-single-unified-data-set/

Then support this conclusion. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re FOS. Your suspicions, however, will convince nobody. The US is not equivalent to Venezuela or Zimbabwe in the way you’re trying to suggest How so, specifically? As I noted above, the risk posed by debt is others will become unwilling to lend to us at favorable interest rates. Last I checked, interest rates on lending to the US remain at historic lows.

Those issues are valid. They deserve attention and resolution. They are also different from “debt is bad” which was the subject under discussion here. The OP was simplistic to the point of being useless though, so it probably doesn’t matter.

I think perhaps you're conflating personal/household debt with government/US debt. They're different in important ways (last I checked, I don't have a money printing press in my basement or the ability to write trade legislation with other nations) EDIT: I also cannot with the stroke of a pen decide whenever I want to collect additional revenues from my employer. The government, however, can tax whom and however much they want to whenever they want.

The risk of debt is being unable to borrow more at low interest rates. Too much debt means we're seen as too risky to lend more and interest rate on that lending jumps up. We can borrow at nearly 0% interest right now. I'd say debt isn't the problem seasonal deficit hawks are claiming it is.

I think it's more possible there's damage to other apartments near you which you cannot personally see yourself

I have to assume you've not looked at the studs or anything below surface, or even used a detector that's better than the human eye to "see"

The fix here is to remove the drywall and strip it bare to the studs where you'd want to hit the framing with a sand blaster / dry-ice blaster to knock the charred remains loose and leave the clean unburned wood below exposed.

Or get a mortgage on a house to move your children to a better school district with better air and water quality. Or get a car loan so you can drive to a better paying job farther away. Or take out a student loan to increase your future earnings potential and job opportunities. Or ad infinitum.... Conclusions drawn from false premises are only ever correct by accident.

Except when debt is a gain of opportunity, in an economy that can invest that debt and print money to pay it off or at least lower it’s real value. The US government is not a household. They need not budget as if they are. That said, I tend to agree we should address debt. One of the best ways to do so is to enforce tax laws and prosecute tax evasion.

You could always try cocaine

I’ve heard this said by different people and more than once recently: Republicans right now are the biggest threat to the survival of democracy in the US It’s nihilistic

I think next the state of California should follow this same path and allow private citizens to sue others for owning a gun, or driving someone to a gun show, or for frequenting a shooting range. That’s the type of vigilantism Texas is showing is works.

Sometimes infamous, too.

Marketing. It makes a better narrative.

Which god(s)?

Praying isn’t much different from meditating. The main difference is instead of listening to your own mind, you’re pretending your mind is that if god and it’s listening to you.