Bill Lear wrote: > Dean Baker writes the following, in his "The Bankrupt Debate Over > Bankrupting Our Children" (2009-5-11 from Truthout): > > At some point, everyone alive today will be dead. At that point the > government bonds that constitute the debt will be owned by our > children or grandchildren. In other words, our children and > grandchildren will be paying the interest burden to themselves. If > future generations both receive and pay the interest on the debt then > how can it be on net a burden to them? > > Isn't it true that "our children and grandchildren" will be paying the > interest burden mostly to wealthy bondholders (the "Wall Street crew" > that Baker decries) since bond ownership is presumably quite unequally > distributed?
The problem, as others noted, is that many or most of those "children and grandchildren" will be scions of the current rich class: instead of taxing the rich as in days of yore, these days the US government borrows from them and pays them interest. In addition, many of them will be outside of the U.S. As others note, there's nothing wrong with the US govt borrowing if it uses the money productively (on basic research, public health, etc.) rather than wasted on tax cuts for the presidents' peers/campaign contributors and silly missile defense systems. This is true even if the money is borrowed internationally and even if (as might happen) the US$ loses its exalted international status (so that the US government has to pay interest in renminbi. The U.S. did fine during the 19th century based on money borrowed from abroad. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
