U.S. Debt in depth look.

[Byzantine]

First let's get some things straight. Debt is not a bad thing (this link explains a little bit more https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-public-debt-3306294) but the U.S. debt is completely out of control (just look at this debt clock https://www.usdebtclock.org).  So what are we going to do to fix this. I mean beyond letting congress raise the debt ceiling in another month when we come close to hitting our maximum debt (AGAIN).

[Thalmor]

US monetary policy is completely f.u.c.k.e.d. and there's no fix to it. The government only has 3 levers to pull in trying to balance the budget. It can either cut spending, raise taxes, or print money. 

Cutting spending in any meaningful way will never happen. Everybody in Congress has some special interest group lobbying for some pork somewhere. The military and corporate subsidies are good places to look for cuts, but the American Empire needs their mercenaries to kill brown people - and scare everyone else - with. I would go as far as to suggest that the only reason why the USD is the reserve currency of the world is because our military can just kill anybody else who seriously becomes competitive. Then, you have the zombie corporations which will never make a profit, but receive public funds anyways because somebody somewhere is getting paid to keep that gravy train going.

Raising taxes is weird. If you raise taxes are normal people, then you lose points in polls and might not get reelected. However, raising taxes on the 'wealthy' (most of whom are, like, doctors and IT people and shit but nevermind that LOOK AT ELON MUSK AND JEFF BEZOS) is hella popular because 40% of the population blames their own personal problems on them anyways. So, politicians beat the drum on raising taxes on the 'wealthy' while usually not doing anything. Although you do have the Democrats proposing that we start taxing unrealized capital gains. I don't know how you tax money that doesn't exist, but that's about where the discourse among our 'leaders' are so that's cool. 

Last option is to print money, but the Fed is currently printing 120 billion a month or something now. I guess you can make printer go brrr even more if you want but we're already seeing big inflation, and I don't see the mechanism for how it gets better.

There is no solution to the US debt problem. At best, our 'leaders' are grossly incompetent and at worst, they're evil and are intentionally managing us poorly (which is what I personally believe). Congressmen, on a personal and individual basis, have no incentive to actually do anything to fix it. Raise taxes to pay for things? Nah, I'd lose my seat. Cut spending? Nah, my bank account would shrink. All the incentives here are to act perverse. The leadership of both political parties have set themselves and other major institutions up to maintain this monopoly on political power. So, you can't just 'vote them out' for whatever. Most of the real decision makers in the nation exist either in the corporate or banking world anyways.

Even if you did get a Congress and Executive Branch full of moral, just people, then the solutions to the debt crisis remain the same; which is to cut the majority of spending while increasing taxes dramatically. You'd probably have to maintain this condition for, like, a decade at least. Probably longer. In doing so, you can say goodbye to most social programs (sorry, grandma, no more triple bypass for you!). The glorified jobs program of the regime - the United States Armed Forces - would lose a lot of its manpower and capability. Which means it loses much of its international influence, which means it loses out of economic opportunities even more. 

This all being said, I do agree that there's a problem and that it can't go on forever. This house built on monopoly money will crash and burn eventually. It'll probably look something like how the collapse of the USSR did- except worse in every way. The only thing a person can do is just live your life and find ways to mitigate the coming storm. You need a way to live without the local stores having all the Funko Pops and TV dinners that you're use to. So, I want to be able to feed myself while maintaining a way to trade with people because Dollars will only be good for toilet paper and starting fires. I plan on spending next year learning how to grow things and hunt/skin/dress animals. I also am working on building the wealth and resources to go heavy into crypto (precious metals - specifically silver coins - work well for this). Also, learning a marketable skill is good. Learning how to use heavy equipment, a trade, how to program, or knowing medicine (IE, become a nurse) are all good too.

This is a downer post, but it's not meant to be hopeless. Yes, you should lose hope if you think there's a political solution to our current problems. But, if you just want to live a normal life where all that matters is your day-to-day experiences, then this is just something to think about and plan for (like knowing a bad storm is coming and that you might be without power for a few days). Besides, even if we didn't live under these circumstances, then learning certain skills is a good idea just for the virtue of it anyways.

The American Empire may (well, WILL) collapse, but that doesn't mean you're gonna die or something. It might not even mean that your quality of life will get worse. You just need to be aware of it and take steps so that you can live a life you're happy with- which is something you should be doing anyways in the pursuit of living life to the fullest anyways.

[Byzantine]

I actually like this post (Not gonna lie). I like to consider myself a "Prepper" (My age gets in the way being under 18 [not saying any more on that]) so I can't actually stockpile or buy a gun and stuff but I read survival manual of all kinds and manuals on what to do when SHTF. When you find good strategies at hunting and stuff let me know I'd sure like to be able to hunt. :)