I still think they could begin to pay off their debts by selling all their military equipment (that's where the borrowed money went, isn't it?). Lots of warships, stealth bombers, missles, etc that could go a long way to squaring America up. I'm sure there must be *some* Americans who feel like shit knowing they are not good for their word any more.
The world should treat America like a dead-beat nation, and start taking back equipment, land, and infrastructure. American's respect bounty hunters and collections agents, it'll be cool.
There's lots of land, the locals could be moved to reserves to free up the good land for the actual owners (the Chinese).
We can dream.
The military equipment would not be sufficient to pay off the debt of the US government, plus there is not sufficient demand for this equipment. Plus such sales would be a threat to both national and world security.
A much more viable way to payoff the national debt is entitlement reform
Thanks for taking my post seriously, though you didn't comment on the part where I would put the Americans in reserves before selling the major cities to the highest bidders. Of course it wouldn't be sufficient - but since they can't afford to pay for it, giving it to the debtors is a start. The military equipment in the US's hands has already demonstrably reduced world security, so not sure I can agree on that point either. I point out that there is actually precedent for confiscating the equipment:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/10/05/the-real-story-behind-the-argentine-vessel-in-ghana-and-how-hedge-funds-tried-to-seize-the-presidential-plane/"Entitlement Reform" as a means to pay off debt is even more delusional than what I am saying up there, since everyone knows that cutting social services etc will only mess your country up even more than it is already, and there would never be enough GDP in a thousand years to pay back all that you guys owe.
Anyway, these things aren't usually up to the debtor. China should decide what they repossess. What about the idea out of Seinfeld, Americans can play the roll of butler for their creditors, for the next 100 years or so?
Given the actual options, it's no wonder the only thing the USA can do is to invade places and destabilize the world, to distract from the massive precipice they are moving towards..