Hacker News Reader

I don't think you understand how money works. Federal debt doesn't matter beyond its relationship to taxes and inflation. The US needs to raise taxes and address inequality through greater investment in public services and infrastructure, as well as stronger regulations on consumer goods pricing, not less.

View on HN

> Federal debt doesn't matter beyond its relationship to taxes and inflation

Much like household debt doesn't matter beyond it's relationship to household income?

National debt and household debt are very different things, because most households aren’t able to print money

Macroeconomics is very different from microeconomics. Your spending is my income and my spending is your income. If the government spends a dollar, where does it go?

Presumably it goes to some sort of goods and services. The employees pay income taxes. The businesses pay corporate taxes. And so on.

Similarly, when a business lays off 10,000 people, it's not their problem anymore. Whereas from a macroeconomic policy perspective, "everybody" is the government's responsibility.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com