Originally Posted by
turbojet28
This “reset” is going to happen at some point, regardless of anyone’s feelings or anyone’s monetary or fiscal policies. The simple laws of economics will rule at the end of the day. Production and saving, leading to investing in other productive enterprises are the activities that naturally drive real growth in economies, not consumption and debt. An economy whose consumption is largely sustained by debt is sick, not healthy. It’s just a matter of time before the house of cards comes tumbling down. No lessons were learned from 2008. That was merely a growth pang of the total economic bubble that has been inflating for a few decades now. The “solutions” that brought us out of 2008 were nothing more than band-aids. Much of the fiscal and economic policy of the last number of years has merely pushed off until later the reckoning that will eventually come. I hope I’m wrong.
Might be but it's at least plausible that economies can simply grow their way out of debt. Unlike individual people, economies don't need to plan for retirement and death. Aside from wars, societal upheaval, or asteroid impact the only constraints on economic growth are resources and living space... we're a long way from running out of either of those and by the time we are there's always the moon.
I'm not a fan of unrestrained debt and spending but it is a different animal than your personal finances. The budget was balanced (slight surplus actually) 20 years ago, so it's not impossible that we could get back into that ballpark. Debt as a fraction of GDP is of course at an all-time high.