Over the past few weeks, college students from across the country have been working to promote Unity08 through the college.unity08.com Fall Issue Campaigns. Most recently, we’ve focused our efforts on educating students on the importance of combating the growing national debt – and students have answered through action.
Currently, our national debt is about $8.5 trillion, which is roughly 65% of our GDP. That means that each American would owe roughly $28,500 to pay off the national debt. As an issue that will surely be passed on to our generation, it is imperative that college students press politicians on the importance of combating the national debt.
On colleges across the country, students are gathering for events and speakers to talk about the growing national debt. Also, campus leaders are planning events to promote Unity08 and the Fall Issue Campaigns.
Be sure to check out college.unity08.com to learn more about our Fall Issue Campaigns. In the coming weeks, we’ll continue our efforts by focusing on education and America’s dependence on foreign oil.
The college effort is now active at over 200 campuses. We invite you to check out college.unity08.com to learn more about the college effort and how you can get involved, even if you’re not in college!
Dane Anderson is a senior at the University of North Carolina.
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OK, well why not crank up the presses and simply print more money to pay down the the national debt?
Who would it hurt?
Simply printing more money to pay down the debt would hurt a lot. First, it would be inflationary: more money in circulation would mean more dollars chasing the same amount of good and services, therefore those goods and services will become more expensive. But that would be the least of our worries. The national debt is real debt owed to real people and institutions both in America and around the world. If we decided to pay those people off by just creating more money (which would be worth less because of the inflation I mentioned), the credit rating of our nation would plummet. In other words, people will shy away from buying our debt in the future because in the past they got "burned". This will make it more expensive for us to borrow in the future. Finally there would be the impact to the international money markets. Once again if there is suddenly a trillion more dollars printed and circulating aroundthe world then the value of the dollar against other currencies will tank making it more expensive for Americans to buy goods from over seas and compounding our trade imbalance among other problems.
Well I still don't see the problem with printing the national debt. Print it over 5 years. The poor credit rating will help to discourage us borrowing more. More expensive imports will help us to produce more here.
Big problems require big solutions.
Printing more money will not work, if it would Congress would have already done it. The only thing that will work is a balanced budget amendment.
Dane: Unless we take the big money out of political campaigns the national debt will continue to grow and someday reach a point where the national government will declare bankruptcy. Ask your economics professors or history professors has the US government ever defaulted on the national debt? I would be curious to hear their response. If you could, post your impressions of their response on the blog. I believe the governemnt has defaulted in the past but am not sure. Short of a balanced budget amendment the future looks a little queasy.
We must print the debt, we have no other real alternative, it's way out of hand. Exactly who does it hurt? Meaning what demographic segments does it hurt, not just some gobbldy goop about banking etc.
Large problem = dramatic solution.
PS Congress wouldnt do it because it hurts executives and rich folk like them.