Deficit/National Debt: Sinking Boat in a Sea of Debt

Right now, the national debt stands at approximately $9,300,000,000,000. Because it is rising by about a million dollars a minute, it will have gone up enough by tomorrow at this time to eclipse the guys at the lower end of the Richest Dudes in the World list. By this time next month, even Bill Gates would be humbled.

We owe individuals and corporations here and all over the world untold billions, paying them interest in unimaginable amounts every year. But the most ominous development is the growing fraction of the national debt owed to foreign governments. One of our biggest creditors is . . . Kuwait. Remember them and how this country's blood and treasure tore them out of Saddam Hussein's grasp and restored their independence? They are certainly back in business. Let's hope they continue to view the United States as a friend. After all, someone with several hundred billion dollars in U.S. Treasury bonds is in a position to cause an economic calamity by dumping them.

China also owns hundreds of billions in Treasury securities, and their "friendship" is, to say the least, not entirely dependable. Another great ally that holds mega-billions in U.S. government debt is Russia, which continues its incremental lurching to authoritarianism and perhaps beyond. After all, Vladimir Putin is a former KGB officer from back in the days when real Soviet he-men in power didn't put up with wimps and their democratic clap-trap. (If you happen to meet Mr. Putin sometime and he offers to shake your hand, be certain he isn't palming a pair of pliers to soften up one of your knuckles with.)

Those younger than about 40 may not realize this, but maybe a couple of generations ago, the United States was the world's leading creditor nation. How on earth could we have gone from such a gleaming fiscal pinnacle to the depths of financial wretchedness in just a few quick and easy steps? Imagine a sleek, shiny airplane, maybe a 747. If maintenance is skipped, and at the same time it is positively abused with gritty oil, dirty fuel, and high-stress, full-throttle dives and spins, it will suddenly begin to come apart even while the outside continues to look sleek and shiny.

There are many reasons for our present grave predicament, but one deserves mention precisely because it is not often considered. Ever since FDR's administration, we have been told, variously, that we don't have to worry about the national debt because "we owe it to ourselves" (that's pretty well out the window), that we'll be running a surplus soon so that we can pay it down, that it is a very low fraction of our gross domestic product, and so on. These are all distractions designed to let the pilots in Washington open up the throttles and do curlicues and power dives even while the engines are sucking up bad fuel and fouled oil.

All of these decades of passing off the hugest debt of all as not only benign but even beneficial have had their effect. How can the average individual feel uncomfortable about his own debt when he sees the government spending money it doesn't have for purposes that often, to his way of thinking, have little or no value. He, on the other hand, can go into debt to buy something that he can absolutely justify, something that will give him enjoyment.

Just because something is legal doesn't make it moral, so the saying goes. Most people would probably continue to abhor murder even if laws against it were repealed. Other things might not hold up so well, especially those matters with a strong, natural appeal. For most people, it's downright exhilarating to spend a bunch of money on fun stuff. When the money is not there, where is the convincing objection to borrowing it if all you have ever seen during your whole life is a government that borrows and borrows and borrows with seemingly no ill consequences?

Well, now the proverbial chickens have come home to roost (and, sadly, we seem to be standing right under them). The mighty engine that was American prosperity and productivity has kept the sleek, shiny airplane flying along with no apparent problems. Of course, those who wanted to listen--who wanted to listen?--would have heard the grinding of failing turbines and the clatter of a disintegrating air frame. But for those bent on enjoying the ride to the end--most of us, it would seem--ignoring those pesky warning signs was the way to keep having fun by not worrying.

So here we are with our gigantic national debt, owed more and more each day to foreign governments. The prospects are dismal, especially given the incomprehensible liabilities of both Social Security and Medicare, neither of which can survive in any meaningful form for many more years without draconian measures.

That's the problem: Draconian measures are what is required all around to rescue the economy. But no one wants draconian measures, especially if we are all conditioned to having a good time without much in the way of pain. We can continue to postpone the day of reckoning, but that will just make the castrophe worse when we no longer can keep all the plates spinning atop the poles, and they begin to crash around us. It's something like ignoring cancer because it's scary and painful to treat. But later, when it has metastasized and is raging throughout the body, the treatment is infinitely more horrible and quite possibly won't do any good anyway.

We had better swallow the gallon of unspeakably nasty medicine right now. Otherwise, our present course will have us in economic metastasis very soon.