Is spending more than your earning sustainable?

[97guns]

I'm curious how our government and every government has done it for so long?

I know how, it's the same way your neighbor is surviving, on credit

[greenskeeper]

The government prints it's own money, so to an extent there is no reason to have a budget surplus. It's the paper money holders that suffer with lower purchasing power.

100% of FIAT currencies have failed. We are only 46 years into our "experiment"

[TexasHusker]

All of the debt is financed by bond and note holders. As long as the payments on these obligations is honored by the treasury, all is good.

The moment that the obligations are not honored, it will be a truly hellish day.

Meanwhile, "just print more money" falls into the same myopic bucket as "just raise minimum wage":

You cannot create more wealth with the stroke of a pen.

[97guns]

It's the paper money holders that suffer with lower purchasing power.

100% of FIAT currencies have failed. We are only 46 years into our "experiment

Golds purchasing power has done well

[Jellymint]

I'm curious how our government and every government has done it for so long?

I know how, it's the same way your neighbor is surviving, on credit

As much as possible, I would not go for credits or borrowing a loan. I don't think, its a good idea to spend more than your capability. You may do so if its really necessary like for health and education purposes.

[GrimJack]

The government prints it's own money, so to an extent there is no reason to have a budget surplus. It's the paper money holders that suffer with lower purchasing power.

100% of FIAT currencies have failed. We are only 46 years into our "experiment"

]

Um, all currencies are fiat currencies so where does that 100% figure for failure come from? there is not enough gold mined or unmined to cover a fraction of world trade - how do you propose to support a non-fiat currency? Even trying to use gold as a standard is essentially 'fiat' since gold's only value is what we assign to it. How do you balance daily trade imbalances? Flying gold around the world certainly won't work since the shipping costs would devalue the gold.

In 2015 the world economy was $113.5 trillion - in the US the median income was $56.5k; in 1913, the median income was $800, put that on your graph. One dollar today buys you things that did not exist in 1913.

Bernanke, trying not to slip in the patches of blood on the floor, struggled with Greenspan. The older man moved like a snake that moved like a former Fed Chairman who moved like a ninja. At last, Bernanke got a solid grip on Greenspan’s collar and hurled him through the fourth wall, knocking you to the ground.

Improvising a tourniquet from the remains of the snake left over from the earlier simile, Bernanke moved on through the hallways.

[GrimJack]

I'm curious how our government and every government has done it for so long?

I know how, it's the same way your neighbor is surviving, on credit

Actually comparing running the government to a family or even to a business is pretty pointless since neither have anything to do with running a government. How, exactly do people expect the government to balance a budget when it spends $60 million in one bomb attack on one Syrian airport w/o destroying the runways? Your neighbor does not have to buy bombs, support a military, run airports, et cetera and most businesses don't either.

btb - most of your neighbors are probably carrying a mortgage, you might be also.

[Sam1000]

Spending somewhere is always equal to the earning there. However, the vice versa is not true. Earning has two getaways Savings and Spending.

I guess Spending triumphs in a superficial way!!

[Cristen Wyght]

I live by the saying, "Live below your means".

[Nutria]

<quote>I'm curious how our government and every government has done it for so long?</quote>

Two interconnected reasons:

• being the biggest, most important world reserve currency, and
• being the petro-currency.

Plus being by far the wealthiest country.

Of course, this is not sustainable in the long term, and everyone knows it, but the country has dug itself into a deep "high benefits, low taxes" hole that no one really wants to climb out of.

[FindingFreedom]

Obviously it's not but I don't think that most Americans actually have any idea how much money they spend on the regular. With everything on credit and debit cards it's easy to spend more than you make.

I'm not sure what the excuse of the government is...

[chestynuts]

One thing we should remember is not to spend more than the cash we have on hand. Discipline is very important in using credit cards.