The US debt is the total sum of all outstanding debt owed by the federal government.
As of February 11th 2019, the US National debt was 22 trllion dollars trillion dollars.
2/3s of that debt is held by the public.
The rest is intragovernmental debt.
22 trillion dollars lot of money, and it keeps getting higher.
One has to wonder if there’s any chance that the US will ever pay off its debt.
But what if, somehow, the US managed to pay it off?
What would that mean for the country itself?
That’s the question We’re asking right now on life’s biggest questions.
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The united states has the biggest debt in the entire world, 22 trillion dollars.
That’s almost as big as my student loan.
So how was America’s collosal debt even created in the first place?
National Debts are created by too much spending as well as tax cuts.
One of the reason why the US’ debt is so large is because tax cuts were implemented
to try to help those affected by the recession.
At the same time, Some of the spending was justified.
Hurricane Katrina cost the country 24.7 billion dollars.
The banks had to bailed out of 350 billion dollars.
Then, The US also spends a lot of money on the military.
In its entire history, the US has been at war 91 percent of the time.
After 9/11, the us government increased military spending again for the war on terror.
This cost 1.9 trillion dollars between 2001-2017.
If you want to blame US presidents, for the debt, here are a couple that greated the highest
deficits.
Francklin D Rosevelt added 236 billion to the debt.
President Obama added 800 billion per year.
President bush had the second largest deficit, but he also had to deal with the financial
recession.
Regan also cut taxes, adding to the debt.
All 4 presidents lowered tax receipts as a result of recessions.
There was a time when the US wasn’t in debt at all.
In 1835, the US had no national debt, and it was very low until 1938 when it began to
skyrocket.
Its difficult to imagine how and if the US will ever pay off its debt.
There are only a few ways to do that.
First, America would have to cut spending, but by cutting spending, this slows down economic
growth.
Another way is to raise taxes, which also slows economic growth.
And the third way is to drive economic growth more quickly than the rate the debt rises.
Republicans and democrats disagree on how to grow the economy.
Democrats say increased spending, republicans say lower taxes.
The government also would have to cut spending on the military and create jobs at home.
If the US paid off its national debt, that would mean it wouldn’t have to pay back
investors the money it owes.
Instead, America would be able to spend a lot more money on public services.
Things like infrastructure, police, fire services, education and hospitals.
If there was no national debt, the economy would grow.
People would have money to spend on things like clothes, housing and technology.
The united states would become extremely wealthy and advanced.
It would have amazing public services, and as a result, its citizens would have a much
higher standard of living.
Essentially, everyone would be happier.
But Most experts think that at this point…there’s no turning back.
Its unlikely that the US will ever pay off its debt.
in order to get to the point that the us can spend more money on public services, they
would have to cut spending on those things in addition to raising taxes in order to create
a surplus.
Especially because the US debt is so massive.
It would take years and years of spending cuts and raised taxes for America to get to
the point that they can start spending on public services again.
Until that happens, public services would suffer.
Roads would be poorly maintained, government owned buildings would fall apart.
Not to mention, everyone would hate the fact that they are paying more taxes.
Until the US managed to pay off its debt, average americans would suffer.
Nobody wants that.
Most of the worlds’ countries are in debt, including America.
The united states is still an extremely developed country, it has the largest economy in the
world, and the most powerful military.
The good news is, as long as the US keeps paying off its debt, it will continue to run
normally.
But now I open up the question to you dear susbcribers, what do you think would happen
if the US paid off its debt?
Let me know down there in the coments.
For now, I’m going to read out some comments on my last video, How Do We Stop T Series.
Animated Matter – what if we hack all phone stores so that when you buy a new phone its
already subbed to pewdiepie.
I like the way you think.
Techster – is this one of life’s biggest questions?
Yes.
yes it is.
Miles Monaco – Even lifes biggest questions is helping.
Always here to help, miles.
Kim Jong un – if you want, I can nuke their head quarters.
Perhaps that will stop them.
Well kim, that would definitely solve the problem but we at lifes biggest questions
take no responsibility for such actions.
Pijush Rajbongshi – next question how to stop life’sbiggest questions.
We cannot be stopped.
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