The national debt is a made up number used to justify austerity,
I mean, its a real number in so far as there really are Treasury bonds outstanding to the numerical effect.
And if you want to talk about sustainable monetary policy, you kinda need to address things like debt load and cash flow to actually operate the machine of government.
Like, it's a stupid archaic backwards system. But its still the system we've got. If you just stop getting paid, insisting "it's just a number" doesn't satisfy any of your creditors.
I mean, its a real number in so far as there really are Treasury bonds outstanding to the numerical effect.
And if you want to talk about sustainable monetary policy, you kinda need to address things like debt load and cash flow to actually operate the machine of government.
Like, it's a stupid archaic backwards system. But its still the system we've got. If you just stop getting paid, insisting "it's just a number" doesn't satisfy any of your creditors.