This is two conservative wonks pre-gaming an austerity push by proclaiming how bad things are before presenting their false dilemma. Ideally they want to take more benefits away and tax the non-rich even harder.
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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United States | News & Politics
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turns out empires aren't forever
It’s just the usual trash from the usual suspects. It would be cool if this were a sign of the empire in decline, but it’s really not.
The thing is that there is a real consequence within the framework of the system. While they can issue infinite currency, the two problems they have are inflation and debt payments. Inflation devalues the currency, while higher debt payments mean that there's less operational budget available. So, end result ends up being less money available for productive purposes as more and more of the budget ends up being allocated towards interest.
less operational budget available
For what? Did you read the article? They care about:
- Federal employees
- Medicare
- Social Security
- Comparing government budgets to household budgets
Seriously? These are the “productive” purposes that are problematic?
If these cranks actually cared about debt, they’d be proposing taxes on the rich and ending the MIC. The article is complete shit and doesn’t actually present any material change in the US debt posture or their ability to “pay” interest on their debt level.
I did read the article, but I also understand other factors that the article doesn't talk about. So, I can use that broader understanding to contextualize what high levels of debt mean in practice.
The debt, and payments on interest, might cause more inflationary pressure than eliminating it would cause.
I think they could just print 39 trillion dollar coins and instantly pay off the debt.
The key context is how the system actually works though. The government doesn’t just print cash and hand it out. Typically, they issue Treasury bonds instead with the understanding that the government will pay back later with interest. These bonds are then bought up by pension funds, foreign governments, big financial institutions, etc.
When the government prints too much money or issues too many bonds, the bond holders start getting awful nervous about their investment. They wonder if the dollars they get back in ten years will be worth the paper they’re printed on. So they demand a higher yield to cover the risk. It’s not unlike a credit card company jacking up your rate when you miss a payment.
Rising bond yields, in turn, make the government’s interest payments go up. Bigger and bigger checks need to be paid to the people who lent the money, which reduces the operational budget. Today, that sum is sitting at something like a trillion dollars a year. It’s money that’s just flowing out of the treasury and straight into the accounts of bondholders.
This seems like an entirely self-created problem by designing a system where the government doesn't just print cash.
Of course, but it works in the interest of the oligarchs, so here we are.
I imagine a system where the government just prints cash, would have a whole slew of other problems and issues, and would likely be less stable/viable than the current mess. The current approach has flaws, but if managed properly, remains viable for a long time -- most of the flaws that become existential threats, only show up after years of neglect or willful corruption, such as in the USA.
The recent historical money printing (bonds have to be repaid, and not technically printing) is QE = Quantitative Easing. The Fed makes up money, and uses it to buy real bonds, under the theoretical possible future of reselling the bonds later. It gives the interest paid on those bonds back to the treasury. While the activity is absurd, it tends to inflate bond prices (lower interest rates) because easy money is to buy bonds before Fed buys them back from you.
Yup, that's also a mechanic that's being increasingly used. And with more money available and cheaper credit stimulates demand for goods, services, and assets. So you end up with increased amount of money chasing a relatively stable supply, which ultimately pushes general price levels higher, hence the process is inflationary.
Media willfully ignored it. Fify
Good for them, I guess. Petrodollar won’t last forever, and it shows.
I wonder how prices of international goods usually valued in USD would fare if USD could become much cheaper than EUR, etc.
I wish I could read the full article. I’m super surprised that fortune put out that kind of statement?
Or is this market manipulation, of shots about to crash does everyone sell and then the richos buy everything at rock bottom? I thought fortune was all mmhmm capitalism money glory to the empire?
I can see it just fine, but here’s an archive link if you really want to read unfounded debt fearmongering https://archive.ph/9Gtaw
Yikes you weren’t kidding. That article is trash ass.
Ohhh nooo the debts! Ohhh nooo hard decisions! Ohhhh nooo if the gdp doesn’t grow and spending increases….! Insolvent!
Buy some fucking everclear for solvent! Idk, money is fake can we take care of people???
I hate this
Money printer goes brrrr, so long as it’s to fund genocide.
But like…. What if we didn’t???! :( ugh. It’s so depressing.
Then the commies would win. Those authoritarian assholes want to end oppression and improve the global standard of living. Just imagine how much worse things would be for billionaires if the global south couldn’t be exploited.
Oh noooo…. Not the commies…. No ooo don’t … stop…..
They tricked me, they were all like “don’t you just really hate capitalism?” And I’m just like 
and next thing you know they’re telling me they have better emojis than anyone and how can you possibly resist that? Next thing you know, they’ve convinced me that a dictatorship of the proletariat would be pretty cool 
Hmm, maybe my app keeps cookies and it’s a ‘you’ve reached you free likit’? Thanks though!
Maybe it’s because I have an ad blocker. It’s an absolutely useless piece of drivel, though.
Conservative debtslop