The Consequences Of The National Debt

So what are the actual tangible consequences of such a colossal public debt? It is not the generation of today who are currently enjoying full health benefits and Social Security, but their children who will pay for our government’s reckless spending and national debt. In the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees annual report to the public they themselves stated that, “Beyond DI, Social Security as a whole as well as Medicare cannot sustain projected long-run program costs under currently scheduled financing.” The U.S. government is fabricating money that it does not have to fulfill promises that it can not keep. If government spending continues has it has been, then it is very unlikely that millennials, or the generations following them will receive government benefits. In addition to their lack of government benefits, due to the national debt millennials can expect lower living standards, higher taxes, inflation that decreases the purchasing power of citizens savings, and an increased probability of a fiscal crisis in which investors would lose trust in the government, forcing U.S.government to pay much more to borrow

Problems in the student loan market are not just harming students but are also exacerbating problems with the United States’ recovery from the Great Recession. New York Federal Reserve Bank data has found that outstanding student debt topped $1 trillion in the third quarter of 2013, and the share of loans delinquent 90 days or more rose to 11.8 percent. Furthermore, the share of 25-year-old Americans with student debt increased to 43 percent in 2012 from 25 percent in 2003, while the average loan balance rose 91 percent, to $20,326 from $10,649 (Gage and Lorin). More than 40 million Americans are in student loan debt and because of this, more than 40 million Americans are not able to stimulate the economy as they are not able to buy houses or cars, or start businesses or families (Applebaum). In Wisconsin alone, student loan debt has resulted in a loss of over $200 million annually from new car purchases, while also resulting in middle class households with student loan debt overwhelmingly renting homes instead of owning them (Vanegeren).

Not only does the increasing cost of attending college affect a student, but unemployment rates also cause the student’s debt to continue longer than it should. Recently the unemployment rate in America has gone up dramatically, due to the economy crash. As of January 2008, the unemployment rate started increasing, starting at 5% unemployment, and in 2010, the unemployment rate was up to 9.8% (“Database”).

The recent clash between the president and congress about raising the debt ceiling made the front page on every newspaper throughout the country and generated controversy of unimaginable proportion among the citizens of the United States of America (College for Financial Planning). No macroeconomics issue is more controversial today than the impact of large public debt on the economy and on future generations, but, however, there appears to be a huge disconnect between professional, political leaders, and the ordinary public about the national debt and its impact on the current and future

Here in the United States, there are many forms of consumer debt, which help contribute to the large sums of debt countless Americans find themselves faced with. Directly effecting many college students is student loan debt. Student loan debt is now the second largest form of consumer debt behind housing” declares the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Grisales). This is due to the fact that student loan debt grew 7.1% in 2014 to $1.2 trillion (Grisales). If this statistic alone is not worrisome this next one is sure to be. The amount of debt in the housing market that helped to spark the last recession was only $1.3 trillion (Grisales). Due to the increased amount of debt required by students to attend college many students are feeling the wrath. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “In 2014, 11.7 percent of females and 17.7 percent of males between the ages 25 and 34 were living with their parents” (Grisales). The fear of obtaining massive amounts of debt is driving the current generation of student’s to put off many future hopes and dreams. While causing them to move back home to save money. The current student loan crisis is crippling the economy and ruining the lives of American students.

From the moment they become old enough to be aware that money is limited, young people today are taught to avoid getting into debt. Horror stories of payment defaults, exorbitant interest rates, and ruined credit are passed from generation to generation, and along with it, sentiments of disgust and panic toward the large and seemingly never-decreasing number that is the national debt of the United States of America. Yet, it cannot be said that all debt is bad; student loans taken as an investment in the future, or a mortgage on a house -- there are plenty of examples of how deficit spending can be a valuable practice, and the first Secretary of the Treasury was a strong proponent of that view when it came to government spending.

The U.S. national debt is currently $18 trillion dollars and it is rising fast. The national debt today is the highest the U.S. has ever seen. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, he declared the U.S. should avoid going into debt. If the nation end up in a deficit, that the debtors were responsible for paying off the debt so that it doesn’t burden the future generations. Like the rest of this advice in his Farewell Address, the nation ignored it. The ideal goal right now should be to stop the debt from increasing anymore because it is impossible to stop the debt from increasing and expect to pay it off in this generation.

Many Americans today are aware that the United States is in debt, however, some may not realize by how much. Currently, the United States National Debt is up to 18 trillion dollars and is steadily increasing. This is a serious problem for the U.S., especially for millennials, who are going to be the ones living and dealing with the debt left behind for them. Increased spending, borrowing from China, and interest on the money borrowed are setting up our economy for an eventual crash, one that the upcoming generation may not be prepared for. Every dollar that accumulates into the debt will have to be repaid with interest at some point, making it harder to pay back. To gain a better understanding of how the U.S. dug itself into such a deep hole, one should start at the beginning of where the debt started.

On the Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, there is a national debt clock that shows the amount of United States national debt. The clock was first installed in 1989, and can show up to ten trillion dollars. It ran out of digits in October 2008 when the sum of debt exceeded the amount. A new clock with two extra digits is going to be installed (Izzo 2 ).

But the student loan debt crisis has far reaching implications for our economy. Young adults who finish college burdened with debt hold back on purchases that were once common for young families, like buying cars and houses—things that make our economy stronger and our middle class more secure.

The total United States national debt is now over 19 trillion dollars and our Congressional leadership shows no signs of accomplishing any significant changes to make the situation better. That 19 trillion equates to almost $59,000 for every citizen of the United Sates. Sound financial practice is to not spend more money than you earn and borrow only for emergencies. It appears our Congress is incapable of adhering to sound financial practices as in the last fifty years there have only been five years when the U.S. recorded a budget surplus. Between 2009 and 2012 the U.S. added 5.5 trillion dollars to its national debt.

Did you know that the National debt is 19.8 trillion dollars? The national budget is excessive, which means the government is using more money than it needs to pay its costs. Do to intensive research in the national debt today you will be reading about what caused it, ways to get rid of it, and reasons why we have to care about the National debt.

In this article, Mark Trumbull, a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor, points out several different areas that the USA‘s National Debt crisis effects. Trumbull asks nine different questions about the debt crisis and then answer’s them as best as possible. His effort is to bring the words of this huge political battle from a high scope to the reading level of the normal American. In an attempt to educate the normal everyday American about the debt crisis, Trumbull raises nine different questions: 1) What is the debt ceiling, and why does it exist? 2) Are we close to hitting the limit? 3) Will

If the federal government ceased to exist tomorrow then at first it would be chaos. Nobody would know if the American debt would be honored and if so then by whom (who would want to take on 17 trillion dollars in debt?). Also federally funded social services (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc.) would stop because without any federal taxes there would be no way for people to pay for them. Also the three million people employed by the federal government would be put out of work, along with the roughly two million people in the armed services, unemployment on that scale would severely affect the American economy. In the mid-game scenario banks and other corporations would step in to take power because they are already in position to

The National Debt consists of the total debt accrued by local, state and federal. Public debt is essentially the federal debt, thus compiling the staggering number that already exists. The debt deficit to me is astonishing. Currently, the total public debt in the United States, as of December 16, 2015, is $18,788,138,221,346.49. This includes $13,600,726,418,253.26 debt held by the public and $5,187,411,803,093.23 by intergovernmental holdings (usgovermentdebt, 2015). High GPD is not anything new to the United States. The all-time high was 121.70 percent ($18827323.00) in 1946 and a record low of 31.70 ($253400.00) percent in 1974 (United States Government Debt to GDP, 2015). The way we are spending, and the debt we are accruing, it would