Whom do we owe the money TO? If there is a debt, that means there is somebody who owes the money and will have to pay it, and somebody else to whom that money will be paid, when the debt is paid off or paid down.
And doesn't mean that much of that debt cancels out? Because many or perhaps even most of those individuals or government or corporate entities to whom the debt is owed and will be paid are also individuals or government or corporate entities who also share the debt.
If Bob's share of the national debt is -- and I'm not going to try to do the math here, so I'll just pull some figures out of the air for purposes of illustrating my point -- if Bob's share of the national debt is one part out of 330 million parts, and if that comes to $30,000, let's say, but Bob is also owed $10,000 for an income tax refund, and if he also gets $10,000 from a federal grant for something or other, and if he sells some U.S. savings bonds that he's been holding on to for a long time and gets another $10,000 for those, then that adds up to $30,000 that he gets from the federal government, and that's his share of the national debt, which cancels out his share of the national debt, doesn't it?
What I'm saying is, everybody always moans about the deficit and the debt, but nobody ever acknowledges the fact that the existence of a debt includes the existence of a debtor. Aren't we in a closed global economy and everything ultimately adds up to zero?
-- Ron
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