# Is the US dollar about to collapse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-us-dollar-about-to-collapse/670671>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [October 8, 2013, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-us-dollar-about-to-collapse/670671 "2013-10-08T12:44:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-us-dollar-about-to-collapse/670671/41 "2013-10-08T19:56:33Z")

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> [@Lemur866](#):
>
> When you’re a deadbeat who doesn’t pay his bills on time, the people you ask to borrow money from won’t lend you as much, and will charge you a much higher premium. Right now we can borrow money at pretty close to 0% interest. If we default on our debt, that ability goes out the window.
> 
> So we have to start paying more interest, which means we can’t borrow a dollar and pay back a dollar, we have to pay back two dollars. And to pay back our creditors we will need to borrow even more money, or raise taxes higher, or cut popular spending programs like social security, medicare, and national defense, since that’s where the bulk of federal spending is.
> 
> Or we just devalue the dollar so that paying two dollars is just as easy as paying one dollar, we can make as many dollars as we want. But that is called inflation, and will lead to all sorts of bad effects we all remember from the 70s and 80s.

ahh, the Capital One plan - always good.

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