# Why isn't the national debt/deficit abstract and meaningless to a regular citizen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 22, 2010, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-the-national-debt-deficit-abstract-and-meaningless-to-a-regular-citizen/551050 "2010-08-22T08:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mr\_Smashy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mr\_Smashy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Smashy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-the-national-debt-deficit-abstract-and-meaningless-to-a-regular-citizen/551050/61 "2010-08-26T13:29:22Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > The deficit is what is going to destroy this nation. How in the hell is this country going to continue servicing a $11 trillion dollar deficit? Each person in the USA owes $37,000 dollars to this deficit. You sure you don’t mean to say debt, instead of deficit? By the way, interest payments are [a ridiculous](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget) $164 billion dollars last year, up 18% from the year before (\*yikes). That’s real money being pissed away. The deficit was $1.42 Trillion, up $960b from last year’s. Bad trend. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-the-national-debt-deficit-abstract-and-meaningless-to-a-regular-citizen/551050/62 "2010-08-26T13:38:51Z")
> [@Captain\_Midnight](#): > > The dollar is declining rapidly. Remember when a hundred dollars was a lot of money? A dollar is worth only 66% of a dollar from 1993 (the first year of Clinton). Has your salary gone up 2/3rds in the last 15 years or so? If the US Dollar has gone down 1/3rd, someone else’s currency just went up the same. 人民币很好 That’s not how it works. Currency fluctuations are somewhat proportional, but not directly proportional. It’s equally possible for the value of _every_ currency to drop simultaneously. In any case, a declining dollar is good for American exports. It’s just bad for imports. The dollar has in fact gone _up_ against the Yuan over the last twenty years. That’s part of the reason we buy so much shit from China. ---
**Author:** ![NotreDame05](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90ced4/32.png) [@NotreDame05](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotreDame05)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-the-national-debt-deficit-abstract-and-meaningless-to-a-regular-citizen/551050/63 "2010-08-26T17:25:41Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > > [@NotreDame05](#): > > > > Does the national debt, and continued deficits, have the potential to result in palpable harm to the average tax payer? So those posters mentioning some of the potential outcomes which will have an adverse result on the average taxpayer are untenable in your estimation? > > > > While the chances of default are, in your opinion, are infinitesimal, they still exist, and with them come consequences, and the average taxpayer need not worry about those consequences? > > But you must compare the cost of the deficit in pain to the average taxpayer against the alternative. Say we decide to balance the budget, or at least drastically cut back on spending. That money is going somewhere, and the people getting it, either through jobs or unemployment, will spend even less, and those of us who don’t get money directly from the government will suffer too as demand tanks even more and more private business cuts back. Sure investors will have some more money, but what the hell are they going to invest it in? So you are comparing a small chance of a problem in the future versus a very great chance of a problem today. Remember, Herbert Hoover didn’t let the nation get into debt. That sure helped from 1929 - 1933, didn’t it? Well, the original question, as I recall it, is why/should the average taxpayer should be concerned with the debt/deficit. If there are some possible negative consequences Reasons, some of which are very good, were provided as to why they should be concerned. Some here have opined a possible consequence is a significant devaluation of the dollar, which would have a profound impact upon the average taxpayer. Another possible consequence is a negative change in a credit rating, and would this not adversely affect the average taxpayer? I understand your point of balancing the harm, the harm of not spending enough to abate the recession and facilitate recovery from the recession, and the harm of deficit spending of the magnitude we have now under the present circumstances. (I might add, your suggestion Hoover’s lack of deficit spending facilitated the events between 1929-1933 is very contentious and it is not at all clear had he engaged in deficit spending the crisis could have been averted.) So, to me, your suggestion the average taxpayer should compare the relative harms actually undermines your prior contention the average taxpayer should not have anything to worry about from deficit spending. If you are asking them to balance the harm as a result of deficit spending and the harm as a result of no deficit spending, then you have implicitly conceded they do have something to worry about when it comes to deficit spending, which is an answer to the opening posts query. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-the-national-debt-deficit-abstract-and-meaningless-to-a-regular-citizen/551050/64 "2010-08-26T17:39:48Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And maybe the boogie man will spring out and eat us all up. With interest rates near 0, the Fed could have a problem dealing with deflation. Inflation is a simpler matter - raise rates and slow the economy down - there is tons of room to do that. Given that the inflation rate isn’t even at the Fed’s target value, fears of hyperinflation are just a scare tactic with little or nothing to back them up. I’m not talking about the next two weeks. You are aware that printing money results in inflation? I’m sure you are also aware that inflating the currency is an excellent way to pay off debt? Sooner or later we will have to pay the piper for all this cheap credit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-the-national-debt-deficit-abstract-and-meaningless-to-a-regular-citizen/551050.md?page=3)