Atm in the US, it's 16% of the budget goes on repayments, or ~3.5% of GDP.
Likewise in the UK, it's ~12% at ~3.5% GDP
I suspect it's fairly easy for a society to this level
If for some internal or external reason people are suddenly only willing to lend to you at 4x the previous cost, your cost-of-repayment will quadruple over the next ~20 years. Having a lower debt-to-gdp ratio gives you more flexibility on how to react to this because lowering your debt by a significant margin becomes one of the viable strategies.
The debts of governments of this type is about the lowest risk investments its possible to make, and they're treated that way.
But that also means severe economic crises in those countries has an outsized impact. If the US debt were to increase 12.5% of GDP YoY for years, the entire global financial system would melt down -- as US debt is basically the baseline of the entire system
The above goods and services can simply be “stability” relative to the rest of the world, such that wealth seeking a safe haven continues to choose assets denominated in they nation’s currency.
Can you name an instance in which a developed country, borrowing in its own currency, has defaulted? I can't, at least not since the end of the gold standard.
That is really a statement without a real point. Countries can of course print currency to keep covering their debt obligations but that just impoverishes their citizens and means they lose access to debt markets (effectively).
I know people make this statement a lot, but I never really understand what point they're trying to make.
It sounds like they're trying to claim "free lunch" but I don't really know.