gold, page-53406

It is much simpler these days....

A governments balance sheet is not a measure of its success. This differs from an individual or a company where success have always been measured against the money and assets it can acquire in a given space of time. Historically a governments success (be it an empire, city state or local warlord) is measured on how long it can keep the fat lady from singing and the best way to keep the fat lady from singing is through bread and circuses which cost money. Quite a predicament... i.e. when it comes down to it the balance sheet is of no consequence as long as the system chugs along and no guillotine is installed in the middle of Canberra.

All those that fret a governments balance sheet need to realize a couple of things:
1. It is only stealing from the future if the government is required to pay it back. As far as I can tell there is no strict maturity date on that debt. As new debt can be used to rollover the old one, and so on and so fort it goes into perpetuity or per above the fat lady sings and a future high tech version guillotine is installed in the local civic square across the country. Paying it back tell the people they are dreaming would be Darryl's answer if he was in power...best we wake up from this dream now!
2. It will need to print money for as long as it can because it is the way the current system is designed. The other systems that were designed in past required a government to use swords/guns to acquire coins it required or if your lucky enough to have lived in a time of peace and only had to pay tax then a pair of pliers would have clipped the coins you acquired for your labor the following year. Quite inefficient don't you think? Be glad that those days are gone and a more efficient process called inflation is there to clip your money every year without you even knowing or worse ever see a sword or a gun throughout the whole process...

On a side note to above, I'll wager that the next system designed will not require a relic called Tax as inflation can be used so much more efficiently. The only problem is, just like gold it is a tradition that has existed for millenniums and will be hard to break. Maybe one of the payments stocks can help with this issue in the future...