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From: Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
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Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2025 23:17:30 +0100
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I think a point to keep a grasp on is that
government debt is a liability, one that
when created, doesn't go away by itself.
It sits there and costs you money each year.

Deficit is extra debt this year added onto
last year's debt.  If you have a year without
any deficit, you still have the debt that
had already.  And you had to pay interest
on this debt.

This description overlooks how economic
inflation makes debt smaller in practical
terms.  If the national debt is so many
dollars and is equivalent to a very large
hill of beans, then one year later, the
same value in dollars usually is equal to a
slightly smaller hill of beans.  So, inflation
makes debt go away.  But this isn't a very
good solution, either.  It's pretty much
The same as the other not-good solution.