Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: Critique of the "borrowing from the future" meme
by
LAMarcellus
on 20/06/2014, 22:35:31 UTC
"The problem with what is going on now with the debt, is not that unborn people will have to pay it through taxes in the future. The problem is that the debt, the money printing, the cronyism and the spoils distort the economy severely by canceling the price signals that should govern the spending and capital building, the interest rate being the most important price signal. The capital being built now does not have the right size and structure to best serve the future. And of course the prospect of a painful correction, and a few other things."

I completely agree with the quoted paragraph.


"Since money have no intrinsic value, the size of the debt in total is not equal to actual goods or services produced and consumed."
 This line seems problematic to me. Lacking intrinsic value, money is "backed" by everything that can be produced and consumed. Isn't the conclusion then that debt is always exactly equal to the sum of actual goods and services produced and consumed??

Either way thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.