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c| quote: | Originally posted by Shakka
Japan is not running for the hills. They've just been dealing with deflation and anemic growth for the last 20 years. Pick your poison. What other countries have worse debt/GDP levels than the 369% total credit market debt to GDP that the U.S. has? There sure aren't many and I doubt they are in great shape with rosy economic outlooks. |
Japan's problems are more than just debt. It is experiencing a population decline and a huge ageing problem. About 1/5 of the entire population is 65 or older. I'd guess that this is just as big of a contributing factor. This is important because as time passes, the portion of the population that is truly liable to pay off the government debt (i.e., tax paying worker and employers), in Japan's case, gets smaller. Japan has a national VAT, so consumers also help, but retired people typically have limited disposible income.
The US doesn't have either of Japan's problem. As the country becomes more hispanic we became a larger and slightly younger nation. Only 1/8 of the US population is 65 or older. Unlike Japan, as time passes, the portion of the US population truly liable to pay off the debt actually increases. Thus, my individual public debt burden reduces. Obviously, there are distributional wealth issues with all of this, but you get the point.
Last edited by jerZ07002 on Feb-03-2010 at 20:56
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