But I thought borrowing money was good for the economy. How could it have gone wrong? It went wrong because of several factors and if you don't believe government pensions, ghost payroll, and other soft jobs was a major player, you're as ill informed as you are snarky. Greece's economy is small compared to the U.S. Economy, but so was their relative debt. They borrowed something like 400 billion dollars and we have 18 trillion in debt. Now tell me again how that is a good thing for this country.
You're the perfect MSNBC puppet, you believe everything they say and vote against you're own interests. I'm not dependent on the government to pay my bills or provide my healthcare, so I vote for the party that lets me keep more of my money. And don't start crap about paying my fair share. I'm guarantee I pay more in taxes than the 99%, which is my fair share. And don't start talking about being born with a silver spoon because that isn't nearly the case. I worked my ass off baling hay, and doing other farm work while my dad worked in a factory. I went to the army to pay for college. I worked in the cafeteria during college and did landscaping in the summer. I worked in a bar and then in a law firm to put myself through law school. Now I get to be the guy who looks for hardworking kids and give them a chance to make a successful career. I'm comfortable with my choices.
You shouldn't pretend to know me because we disagree on a message board.
Just to be clear, no one claimed borrowing money
in and of itself is good for the economy. SPENDING money is good for the economy (more below). Borrowing in order to spend is important in bad economic times because it means we don't have to raise taxes while the economy is weak. When the economy is booming, I have no problem raising taxes in order to pay off some of the debt, or at least balance the budget so as not to accrue new debt. But simply paying off all the debt is a dumb goal standing alone.
The only time sovereign debt is bad - and I think this applies to Greece, Spain and Italy - is when you start getting to the point that creditors will no longer give you favorable rates out of fear you will default. The U.S. doesn't have that problem. Despite our increase in debt this past decade, investors still flock to treasuries as the safe investment. The only way we'll ever default is if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, which is why it was the debt ceiling debacle, and not increased spending, that caused our credit rating to take a hit. And even then, the response of the world investors to a crisis invented wholly from thin air by our own dumbass legislators? Buy more treasuries.
Now, back to spending. The key is where the money goes. Borrowing money to bail out banks is, in my mind, a problem. If banks are too big to fail, then they need to be broken up. The government should not be in the business of bailing out companies simply because deregulation allowed them to grow so big that we can't afford to let them collapse while simultaneously giving them the green light to engage in risky business practices making their collapse more likely. If a company is so important to the national welfare that we can't let it fail, then it needs to be nationalized, heavily regulated or broken up into smaller companies.
But spending money on projects is where it's at. There are things we need to build. New bridges, new roads, etc. This infrastructure is critical for the economy,
and we are going to have to buy them eventually. A few years ago, real interest rates were literally below zero*. We could have borrowed money
at a discount in order to buy these things. Investors would have literally been paying us to build new stuff that our economy needs anyway. We were too dumb to take advantage. I can't stress enough how dumb this was. Any time interest rates drop below the rate of inflation, the time value of money makes debt more valuable than assets (so long as you use that debt to build/buy things of value instead of just sticking the money it in your mattress). Our country dropped the ball because our leaders are incompetent and have convinced the populace that government spending is inherently bad.
* Note: I'm talking about interest rates as compared to inflation. This is not the same as the negative interest rates certain European central banks are toying with, as they are dealing with deflation, and so the real rates are actually still positive. This is an entirely different ball of wax.