 Quote by mheslep
Not really. The greater the debt to economic output ratio, the more sensitive the system becomes to shocks. Lenders to governments know this, know that even robust economies growing faster than the debt will sooner or later have a downturn in which the debt continues to grow while the economy does not. When the interest payments on the debt grow large enough that they could possibly consume all revenue in a downturn, as they did in Greece, then lenders have good reason to suspect they won't be paid, they demand higher interest rates quickly making the suspicion a reality.
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Great point, IMO. I see empirical evidence everywhere around me. When the economy is booming some raise their credit to the level that overtime is needed, just to live. All is good until a downturn and overtime disappears, then they have no chance of making ends meet. Government budgets do run like individual budgets, the same budget problems that affect citizens affect government, it can be a benefit to take on credit, in the short term, since one can build, but when those choices are based on faulty beliefs like it is a benefit to furure generations therefore we can spend more than one, two or even three generations can pay back. Sooner or later the problems will come to the surface, and we all go down with the ship, even if we live our lives completely on the other end of the scale. Which if government is about fairness and equality, like progressives expouse, it seems to me counter-intuitive, or even illogical.
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