The US Debt – Does the Debt Even Matter Anymore?
By Uncle Mike
Those of you paying attention understand the US (and the world!) is in serious financial trouble. Thanks to the tremendous financial leadership of politicians of both parties and financial wizards from all the best Ivy League schools, the US is about to fly right past $30,000,000,000,000 (13 zero’s!) or 30 TRILLION dollars’ worth of debt. There is no intent to pay that back. Even if we tried, we could never pay it back. It’s not economically feasible. This financial game is one of musical chairs and when the music stops, no one will have a seat. Or, it might not matter. I’ll explain.
The nation is saddled with huge debt. It used to be the US only owed money to itself. But thanks to globalization, we owe other countries that have ‘invested’ in US. Now the chance of us paying them back grows slimmer every day. China, Japan, the EU own about $1 Trillion dollars each of our debt. As the value of the dollar decreases, the debt these countries carry loses value. Some are in the process of selling the debt they hold. Imagine if they all dumped their debt simultaneously? The US would be financially ruined. Forget market crash and think about where I can get an empty taco! Our ‘friends’ are aiding us in our catastrophic debt by holding dollars. They do not have a choice. They understand that if the financial system of the US were to collapse, it would take them with it. The rest of the world is just as addicted to debt as US.
Getting back to my question, does it matter? Perhaps not. The system is based on belief. The belief that the money, the global financial system… works. Your credit card, debit card, SNAP card, the checks you still write, or even the dollars for your Starbucks does and will continue to work. Faith. You and billions of other people have faith that the financial system is in good hands, that it works, and it will continue to work.
This brings me to ‘Bitcoin’. Bitcoin is blockchain technology that is ‘mined’ by computers in search of a number. Blockchain stores the details of every transaction of the digital currency, and the technology stops the same Bitcoin being spent more than once. The technology can work for almost every type of transaction involving value, including money, goods and property. It is based on faith. Nothing more. It is not finite. Say you only have 1 million Bitcoin to be mined. Who is not to say there aren’t another 1 Million Bitcoin 2.0? There are over 5000 cryptocurrencies now. Including Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency (CC) made up for the fun of it! These currencies are only viable if you believe and others believe and will accept that particular CC. All these CC’s are virtual. They don’t make anything tangible. They aren’t based on anything and they don’t produce anything. Their value comes from faith. They can’t be traded without power (ATM’s, Banks, etc.). Without power, you can’t get one. Heaven help you if you forget your digital wallet number or your Mom trades your laptop in for a biscuit! Bill Maher has an excellent video out about Bitcoin. Please check it out if you have 8 minutes: Bill Maher says Bitcoin is useless… – CITIZEN FREE PRESS
Which leads me back to; Does the US debt matter? The financial state of the globe in the 21st century is we’re all dependent upon debt. This debt is merely a record keeping exercise. It doesn’t matter one bit to the global engine as the system will function. Where it matters is down at the person level. If you as a person, try to misuse personal debt, you will be held to account. You are not a government!
The US debt only matters in the fact that it is a numeric tool to hold accountable the population. The dollar will not be the global reserve currency forever. It is a cycle of financial history that some other form of global currency will follow the dollar. Inflation will come into play soon. The debt will become smaller, but everything else will cost more. It won’t be paid off in our lifetime. Maybe, in 10 years, we can get a Bitcoin to pay it all off? But for right now, the debt really doesn’t matter because everyone still has faith. The dollar continues to work for the world.
And it will. Until it doesn’t. Tomorrow we could have a meteor hit the planet and money truly becomes irrelevant. World War III could start and money would become irrelevant. So enjoy the system today. Keep the faith. And when it collapses, there will be a new system. Until that new system no longer matters.
This link will take you to the US Debt Clock. If should scare the hell out of you:
Uncle Mike
