I was having a conversation with one of my Son-in-laws the other day. I got around to the U.S. debt. and that it will eventually bury us. My Son in law asked me what would happen if we just reneged on the debt, I was stumped for an answer.
Well, it would be the last time any foreign government loaned us money to float our debt, that's for sure. Then we'd have to live within our means, and I doubt we have that within us at this point. We have about 50% of the populace who are tax consumers in one form or another, and politicians who want their votes and are willing to buy them, politicians who really, I don't think, even comprehend that we're out of money. They just think they vote to spend some money and it doesn't have to truly exist somewhere first.
Remember Carol Moseley-Braun? She gave a speech in which she equated not having things you couldn't pay for or not spending money you didn't have with communism. The room erupted in laughter. She either thought people were laughing with her or tried to play it off that way, and began kind of a nervous laugh, herself. But it showed that any economic sense was completely alien to her. She was as ridiculous as that senator who, a few weeks ago, suggested that an island might capsize if too many people were on it.
Everybody's playing a game of let's-pretend right now. Everybody, including the benefactors who foolishly purchase our debt every Monday morning (or is it Tuesday that it's auctioned?) know that our debt can
never be paid back, and yet we're planning on spending more money we don't have. We may not have to intentionally default on our debt; one of these weeks, Washington's going to try to auction off more debt, and other nations are going to go, "Uh, no thanks; we're all set." And that's when the music stops and people are going to be left without a seat.
The trick is finding some way before then to end up like those rich ladies on the Waltons with "The Recipe," instead of everybody else in town.
Oh, one step before furren countries stop buying our debt might be that they demand land--American land--as collateral. If you see that happen, you better find a safe haven, real quick-like. Maybe they'd demand Guam or Puerto Rico first, but next time, they want Hawaii or Alaska as collateral. Yikes, this is getting ugly.