I am in no way suggesting the United States defaults. I am only pointing out that comparison to Japan is absurd. If the Japanese government defaulted on its debt the entire nation would implode. It can also sustain huge debt with no inflation because the debt is held almost exclusively by a homogeneous nationalistic culture.

I think however that you can compare Japan of the past decade or two with the entire world today, but not any one nation, and most certainly not the United States.