Why is the US in debt?

[Zealot]

Perhaps a stupid question but I hear it asked a lot by imperialist apologists. If the US is so imperialist why is it in huge debt? If the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan are for oil why is oil so expensive?

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

War expenses are always paid for with debt, because the rich don't want to pay for their wars and the people would protest higher taxes as well. But the main debt that has come to the capitalist states has come from the Banking collapse 2008.

Oil is so expensive because the war with Iran is a danger. Wars are not solely fought for individual resources, but overall for more markets for the national/allied bourgeoisie.

[The Jay]

It is the United State's ruling class that is benefiting. They don't care if the state is in debt as long as it is able to server their interests, so they build up it's military and security functions and attempts to diminish or eliminate social functions other than property rights enforcement. The rich are doing great. It is everyone else that isn't.

[jookyle]

A good deal(almost the majority) with the country being in debt is that America owes that much money to it's own citizens. There's a small group of rich people who essentially invest in the country in various ways. You can invest in bonds, bills, etc. So basically, private citizens have givens loans to the government with the contract of being paid back eventually. A LOT of debt comes from that.

And there's the more standard reasons, money borrowed from other countries, paying for a war with debt and things like that.

The price of oil has quite a few factors in it. Yes, the wars and the turbulent situations in the middle east play a role but the fact is, gas prices aren't going to go down to pre-war prices because the gas companies know they can charge this much and people will still buy it.

[Prometeo liberado]

Capitalism is, at the very least, about the accumulation of......you guessed it capital. In greater and greater amounts, in fewer and fewer hands. All with total indifference to the mayhem and destruction they leave in their wake. From war profiteering(Haliburton) to the insane farm subsidies(ConAgra), to higher tuition costs which in return calls for more subsidized student loans,from tax credits on over seas investments(job outsourcing) to everything imaginable that would strip the tax base and run up the costs of doing government. This is how you get and stay a member of the .001%. That in a nutshell is your National Debt.

[Uppity Prole]

Perhaps a stupid question but I hear it asked a lot by imperialist apologists. If the US is so imperialist why is it in huge debt? If the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan are for oil why is oil so expensive?

Don't confuse the US government's debt with the US private sector. The US private sector is doing nicely.

During the "boom" of the 1990s caused by asset-stripping of the former Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact states, the US budget began to run large surpluses.

When George W Bush entered office, the GOP cut taxes massively for the top 1% of earners which wiped out the surplus and put the budget into deficit. This meant that any private sector boom was less likely to be shared by the US budget due to a fall in tax receipts.

Post-2001, US rearmament further added to the national debt due to spending on weaponry and defence sector service contractors (many of which had key links with GOP hierarchy like Dick Cheney).

We should be clear here that it was the US government was running up large deficits (even before the 2007-08 crash) to subsidise parts of the private sector and those individuals earning the most income (typically the super-rich).

With the US Federal Reserve keeping interest rates so low, the US government could afford to borrow very cheaply and with low inflation.

After the crash, the US government added further to the national debt due to the bailing out of the banking and insurance sectors. However as things stand the Bush 2001-2009 tax cuts are still responsible for 50% of the US government's structural deficit. The other 50% are ongoing military commitments, the bailout itself and the 2009 stimulus package.

The asset-stripping of Libya and Iraq haven't shown up in the US government's tax intake as this wealth is being kept in the private sector due to tax havens, loop-holes and favourable tax deductions.

[Psy]

Don't confuse the US government's debt with the US private sector. The US private sector is doing nicely.

Well US manufacturing has had a stagnate rate of profit since the end of the long boom, gone is the golden days where any capitalists that owned large scale means of production was guaranteed compounded growth during the long boom.

Of course the largest capitalists are not worried because the US state has basically bailed them out, subsidizing their returns.



During the "boom" of the 1990s caused by asset-stripping of the former Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact states, the US budget began to run large surpluses.

If one looks at West Germany's books we see that the asset-stripping had a huge net loss as West Germany had to pay workers to destroy East German capital in which it got nothing in return as the only reason West German capitalists wanted to annex East Germany was to remove it as competitor, they didn't loot it because West German capitalists were scared of over production diminishing their rate of return yet West Germany still had to buy these East German proprieties that while at fire sale prices was a net loss since they were not getting any surplus value from their purchase.