The Unseen Cost of Government Largesse

With America’s debt now hovering near 125 percent of GDP, and deficits topping $1 trillion yearly as far as the eye can see, we can no longer ignore this drag on the US economy.

Source: The Unseen Cost of Government Largesse - Foundation for Economic Education

This article points out that one of the unseen costs of so much government borrowing is that it makes it so there is less available for anyone else to borrow. This means there is less available for private investment which has all kinds of negative consequences, including hindering scientific advancement. And it's not as if the government turns around and invests the money in useful ways for the American people (nor to they have the ability to do so efficiently anyway). Instead, billions and billions (and trillions) go to things like paying the pensions of Ukrainians, funding scientific studies with virtually no scientific value, building bridges to nowhere, and other nonsense.

But even worse, every penny that is borrowed must be paid back in some form of future tax which again means that there is less available for private investment. With ever rising debt comes ever rising interest on that debt. That means more and more of our tax dollars go to simply servicing the interest on the debt each year. You would think that the wealthiest country in the world could manage to balance a budget with ease, or at least come reasonably close to it. Instead, politicians want so badly to spend ever more of your tax dollars that they try to make the debt ceiling a taboo subject when it comes to negotiating the budget which is incidentally the only tactic that has had any success at all (however limited that success may have been).

Debt currently stands at somewhere near 125% of GDP. Where does it end? Perhaps only with the collapse of the dollar...