Are you scared because of the national debt?

27 comments

1. Why would I be scared.

2. No, good thing you’re not American.

3. I don’t think about it at all.

4. no it isn’t that big a deal when you’re the world’s largest economy and issue your own currency

5. People were asking this question 30+ years ago. The “[national debt clock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Debt_Clock)” was installed in 1989. It was installed by a billionaire. What exactly are we to be worried about as individual citizens living our lives, raising our families, and trying to find some peace in the day?

6. National debt is nothing like personal debt. Plus the only decisions I can make that might affect it are choose between two candidates for president, 2 senators, and whatever representative votes for my district. Most of which will vote the exact same way.

   What does it matter what the national debt is? All it does on a practical level is give politicians something to scream about

7. No. People completely misunderstand what the national debt is. It’s not some huge bill that’s going to come due for us someday. It’s just an accounting of the total number of treasury bonds that exist in the world. That’s it.

   I hate that we even use the word ‘debt’ to describe it because that leads people to mentally compare or equate it to personal debt, like your mortgage or car loan, which gives you a completely wrong understanding of what it is.

   The fact that the national “debt” is $31 trillion, or whatever, doesn’t matter. It’s neither a bad nor a good thing. It’s just a way to describe how much money exists. It doesn’t portend some looming apocalypse or indicate anything one way or the other about the state of our economy or national finances.

   Seriously, unless you work at very high levels in the Treasury, Fed, or are a Member of Congress, there’s absolutely no reason you should care or even know what the national debt is.

   Edit: Also, people tend to think that China owns the majority of our national debt and has some sort of leverage over us because of that. This is also not true. The overwhelming majority of treasury bonds are owned by Americans and American businesses. If you have treasury bonds in your retirement account (which most people with 401ks do) then you own some of that national debt.

   Japan is the largest foreign holder of US treasury bonds at about $1.2 trillion (~3.8% of the total debt). China has about $970 billion, which is only ~3.1% of the total national debt.

8. I am unbothered by this. I never think about it.

9. What country are you from? Let’s play a little game I like to call “putting things into perspective”.

10. The national debt means literally nothing to me

11. bender-oh-wait-youre-serious.gif

12. I don’t think about it at all.

13. Haha no

14. Not even American enemies would risk the US going into default. It would be bad for the US but disastrous to most of the world.

15. No. Not in the slightest.

16. No. Why would you be scared? Edit ok I looked at your account and I see you are 14. I think these sensationalized social media pieces and foreign schools, (yep that’s right we had a German on Reddit a while ago ago asking about our nation debt for homework help) are doing you a disservice. Over 70% of our national debt is held domestically, so don’t stay up at night thinking about it, because it really isn’t as big of a problem as it’s made out to be.

17. You kiddin’? I used to love watching the [National Debt Clock](https://www.thebalancemoney.com/thmb/bpXmwiEFaPo08DuysE7RosjN0nE=/1500×0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/91277665-56a9a6fb5f9b58b7d0fdb19a.jpg) go up every time I passed by the building.

18. Not in the slightest. I understand how national debt works. It’s not like personal debt, or even business debt. There is no international repo man. I’m not going to wake up in the night and hear China trying to tow off Florida (though I wouldn’t object or be upset if they did).

19. I am only scared of politicians using it politically will hurt the country. Stunts like shutting down the country and fucking up our rating is what I fear.

20. Something tells me people staying up all night because they are so scared of the national debt doesn’t happen in any country with the possible exception of North Korea

21. What in the world? Why would something so minor keep you up at night? That’s hella dramatic.

22. No.
    Is this gonna be one of those posts, which are common on this sub, where the foreign OP doesn’t know what they’re talking about and then doesn’t respond to any of the comments?

23. Heh, it’s not great, but it’s also nowhere near the problem people make it out to be.

    It stems from the fact that most people don’t know how governments who print their own money operate and try and pretend the government is like their own personal finances. In other words, they are just ignorant of how much they don’t know on the subject.

24. This doesn’t affect me in any way.

    I have a mortgage, a car note and about $2000 on my Mastercard.

    *Thats* the debt that worries me.

25. … who do you think controls the interest rates?

26. What country are you from? Whatever the answer is, they are also in debt. Every country is in debt to some other country.

27. I legit have no idea why the national debt would make me scared.

    I see that you’re 14. I feel that your youth might be exacerbating your fears.