In a recent letter, David Boyd warned us that “a trillion dollars is an unimaginable amount of money.” I wonder if Mr. Boyd, and others who share his concern now, were equally concerned in 2017, when Republicans passed trillion-plus-dollar tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy?
Mr. Boyd predicts “unknown consequences when (national debt and gross domestic product) shall meet,” as though that were an event with magical power. At the end of World War II, British national debt was well more than double its GDP, without disastrous consequences.
Yes, our national debt is a lot of dollars — but so is our economy. The important thing is that we get and keep our economy functioning.
Mr. Boyd worries that “our great-grandchildren” will be paying down the debt. But we’re mostly borrowing from Americans, from ourselves, so payments by some of our grandchildren will mostly go to others of our grandchildren.If we spend excessively, borrowing or printing money, interest rates or inflation will go up. But the government has the power to tax. So it’s a political decision — not an economic law — that will decide what happens. For example, we could index some taxes to interest rates and inflation to keep both in check.
Meanwhile, we should get everybody working and helping to produce the national wealth which, as Adam Smith knew, is in our actual economic output, not in paper money — or gold. If and when everyone has a productive job, we’ll all be a lot better off.
— Rick Wicks
Anchorage
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