"As a general rule, analogies between personal finance and government finance don’t work very well. It feels intuitive, but governments can do things you cannot."

Can we - all of us - graduate a bit in our sophistication here ?

I agree with your statement and don't need any of this explained to me - there is, in fact, a too-simplistic, oft-made analog to personal, household finances. People would do well to understand what governments (particularly sovereign issuers borrowing in their own currency) can do that they, in their household, cannot.

Yet at the same time, I grow tired of the pedantic scolding of the "dummies" that don't understand modern finance.

I - a relatively sophisticated, learned observer - have a hunch that at the very margins government finance collapses all the way back down to the simple rules of household finance.

I hope to never be vindicated in this hunch ...