Militarized Police Departments

[nain rouge]

Um, the US debt is $17 trillion and growing by $4 billion a day.

Debt-to-GDP percentage is far more meaningful than a raw number. And that percentage has been much higher before. The US took on a ton of debt during World War II and it took awhile to bring the debt back within reason.

Granted, the US is racking up a lot of debt currently, and though the country has been involved in several wars, we can all agree that it hasn't been at all comparable to World War II. Now is that enough evidence to say we're heading for collapse?

Not quite. Japan has carried WAY more debt than the US for a long time relative to GDP and is doing OK. Greece and Italy, however, have taken big hits from somewhat similar debt levels to Japan. It all depends on what you can leverage against the debt, and for now the US has a lot to leverage with. Even in a worst case scenario, I don't think what could happen in the US would be any worse than Greece and Italy, both of which never came close to a total collapse of any sort. Just protests and lean times.