Originally Posted by captfurlough

Dynasty...

you...as a US citizen, and thus party to the federal government, borrowed money from China and others...who bought the US treasury securities (IOUs) ...and you promised to pay it back with intrest. At this point, much of the 1.3 trillion dollar US debt is financed by loans from foreign countries, because they buy these securities from us. You will continue to be taxed until they are all paid back with intrest. My unemployment checks are being made possible in part, thanks to these loans from foreign governments and investors, because the US doesn't have enough money to pay for all it's spending.

In effect, the US government (you and me) is living on it's credit card, like some in the general population did with their credit. When they had no way of paying back, their homes were foreclosed on. That's an oversimplified analogy, but that's the danger that the US faces with it's enormous debt.