Should the US pay its debts?

C

Concart

Well-known member
Contributor
Yes or no.

If no, please explain your reasoning, and why you believe it's a good idea to default on our debt. Discuss the economic impact of a default, and why you believe it is appropriate.

For me, the answer is simple. Yes, we should pay our debts.

Discuss.
 
Concart said:
Yes or no.

If no, please explain your reasoning, and why you believe it's a good idea to default on our debt. Discuss the economic impact of a default, and why you believe it is appropriate.

For me, the answer is simple. Yes, we should pay our debts.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

I agree with you... mostly. I am going to get a little technical on you, but I basically agree.

We should service our debt, and of course pay any legitimate demands for payments, but I see no reason to pay off our debts. In fact, I see many reasons not to pay off our debts.
 
Concart said:
Yes or no.

If no, please explain your reasoning, and why you believe it's a good idea to default on our debt. Discuss the economic impact of a default, and why you believe it is appropriate.

For me, the answer is simple. Yes, we should pay our debts.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity is this more a philosophical discussion or is someone/a group out there stating the U.S. shouldn't pay its debt and is the impetus for the thread?
 
in 1971 we defaulted on our debt.

We will again. It is inevitable. You put us on a system where we have no real check and balance against the greed of the population. If we can continue to saddle unborn generations and third world shitholes with more of our debt, why wouldn't we?

So it isn't a matter of if we should. We won't.

What we will do is continue to make minimum payments and ask for perpetual credit line expansions. When they stop agreeing to it - it will be 1971 all over again, and yes, we will default again
 
Hello Concart,

Concart said:
Yes or no.

If no, please explain your reasoning, and why you believe it's a good idea to default on our debt. Discuss the economic impact of a default, and why you believe it is appropriate.

For me, the answer is simple. Yes, we should pay our debts.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

Yes. No-brainer yes.

The US absolutely needs to pay our debts. The US government operates on credit. If the US didn't have good credit, if there were no faith that the US would pay her debts, we would not have won WWII and we would all be speaking German now and paying homage to the Third Reich. Those of us who still remained, that is. Many would have been wiped out in genocide.
 
cawacko said:
Out of curiosity is this more a philosophical discussion or is someone/a group out there stating the U.S. shouldn't pay its debt and is the impetus for the thread?
Click to expand...

The impetus is the position of candidates with respect to the debt ceiling. Which of course allows us to pay our debts. Obviously there are candidates that oppose raising the debt ceiling, and those candidates may be elected to Congress. I'm curious where people stand on this issue and why.
 
Concart said:
Yes or no.

If no, please explain your reasoning, and why you believe it's a good idea to default on our debt. Discuss the economic impact of a default, and why you believe it is appropriate.

For me, the answer is simple. Yes, we should pay our debts.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

yes.....now, should we assume and pay other people's debts?.....should we incur debts we have no intention of ever paying, dumping them on future generations.......
 
Walt said:
I agree with you... mostly. I am going to get a little technical on you, but I basically agree.

We should service our debt, and of course pay any legitimate demands for payments, but I see no reason to pay off our debts. In fact, I see many reasons not to pay off our debts.
Click to expand...

Agreed, this is just semantics. We can't pay off our debt, the question is whether we should pay our creditors and meet our budget obligations. It is a good clarification though. The question is whether we should meet our financial obligations, in particular payments to creditors.
 
Hello Walt,

Walt said:
I agree with you... mostly. I am going to get a little technical on you, but I basically agree.

We should service our debt, and of course pay any legitimate demands for payments, but I see no reason to pay off our debts. In fact, I see many reasons not to pay off our debts.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Proper responsible use of national credit is invaluable.

In a way, Brandon is using our credit wisely to release from the SPR.

Having all that oil stockpiled is like credit. We can spend it down in a crisis such as war driven gas price inflation, and we can build it back up when times are good. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is like money in the bank. Spend now, pay later.
 
Concart said:
Yes or no.

If no, please explain your reasoning, and why you believe it's a good idea to default on our debt. Discuss the economic impact of a default, and why you believe it is appropriate.

For me, the answer is simple. Yes, we should pay our debts.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

Normal people know debts need to be paid but politicians from both parties arent normal people.
 
Concart said:
The impetus is the position of candidates with respect to the debt ceiling. Which of course allows us to pay our debts. Obviously there are candidates that oppose raising the debt ceiling, and those candidates may be elected to Congress. I'm curious where people stand on this issue and why.
Click to expand...

Do you find any value in having a debt ceiling? I thought the debt ceiling was originally put in place to, in theory, make the federal government more fiscally responsible. Whether that has been the case can certainly be debated. But if one believes there should be no limit on government spending then the debt ceiling can be a barrier to that.
 
zymurgy said:
in 1971 we defaulted on our debt.

We will again. It is inevitable. You put us on a system where we have no real check and balance against the greed of the population. If we can continue to saddle unborn generations and third world shitholes with more of our debt, why wouldn't we?

So it isn't a matter of if we should. We won't.

What we will do is continue to make minimum payments and ask for perpetual credit line expansions. When they stop agreeing to it - it will be 1971 all over again, and yes, we will default again
Click to expand...

No we did not. The US Government has never defaulted on it's debt with the sole exception of during the Civil War. No, the US government did not default on it's debt in 1971, it simply discontinued paying gold on demand. That is not a default. Same with 1933. And same with 1968. We are not on the gold standard and we are not on the silver standard.

You failed to answer part two. Why do you believe we should, and what do you believe the economic impact would be. If it's too hard a question to answer, feel free to just move on to something else.
 
PoliTalker said:
Hello Walt,



Agreed. Proper responsible use of national credit is invaluable.

In a way, Brandon is using our credit wisely to release from the SPR.

Having all that oil stockpiled is like credit. We can spend it down in a crisis such as war driven gas price inflation, and we can build it back up when times are good. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is like money in the bank. Spend now, pay later.
Click to expand...

Later never seems to come.
 
Concart said:
Yes or no.

If no, please explain your reasoning, and why you believe it's a good idea to default on our debt. Discuss the economic impact of a default, and why you believe it is appropriate.

For me, the answer is simple. Yes, we should pay our debts.

Discuss.
Click to expand...

The moment we pay off our debt is the moment we go bankrupt. It's a complicated situation, but try to learn about fractional reserve banking and you'll begin to understand why debt = wealth.
 
cawacko said:
Do you find any value in having a debt ceiling? I thought the debt ceiling was originally put in place to, in theory, make the federal government more fiscally responsible. Whether that has been the case can certainly be debated. But if one believes there should be no limit on government spending then the debt ceiling can be a barrier to that.
Click to expand...

No. It's absolutely idiotic. It does not serve as a barrier to spending. Congress can pass any budget it wants for as much as it wants. The debt ceiling does nothing to prevent that. It only prevents us from PAYING what we already committed to paying.
 
Concart said:
No we did not. The US Government has never defaulted on it's debt with the sole exception of during the Civil War. No, the US government did not default on it's debt in 1971, it simply discontinued paying gold on demand. That is not a default. Same with 1933. And same with 1968. We are not on the gold standard and we are not on the silver standard.

You failed to answer part two. Why do you believe we should, and what do you believe the economic impact would be. If it's too hard a question to answer, feel free to just move on to something else.
Click to expand...

they reneged on promises made.

Fine, we won't default. we will just issue a new currency and tell them they have no choice but to take it. So you can sleep comfortably and say the US has never defaulted on their debts, which is a joke
 
zymurgy said:
they reneged on promises made.

Fine, we won't default. we will just issue a new currency and tell them they have no choice but to take it. So you can sleep comfortably and say the US has never defaulted on their debts, which is a joke
Click to expand...

If I promise to buy you a car, but instead give you the money to buy the car, I did not 'default'. if you want gold, go buy it. With the Federal Reserve Notes the US government provided. This gold standard BS is a red herring. You are still completely avoiding the question.
 
Concart said:
If I promise to buy you a car, but instead give you the money to buy the car, I did not 'default'. if you want gold, go buy it. With the Federal Reserve Notes the US government provided. This gold standard BS is a red herring. You are still completely avoiding the question.
Click to expand...

If I promise to give you something, but later say, this other thing is just as good, I reneged. I defaulted on the promise I made.
 
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