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Today, the United States is over $35 trillion in debt. $35 trillion is a number so large that it becomes an abstraction, as few people can comprehend its enormity.
This problem is only getting worse as the doom spiral of fiscal irresponsibility continues to accelerate. A March report by CNBC noted that we’re adding $1 trillion to this number every 100 days.
For obvious reasons, this fiscal calamity is almost guaranteed to cause significant problems for our largest federal programs like Social Security and Medicare in the coming years. But it’s also intrinsically linked to microeconomics.
For the average American, affordability remains a key issue. Everyday items, from gas to eggs and milk, remain high. The US dollar isn’t packing the same domestic punch that it once was. While higher-income earners are only marginally affected, middle-class and working-class Americans inordinately feel the pinch.
And this doesn’t even account for the housing affordability crisis. In February, Fortune published an article noting that millennial Americans are feeling “disenfranchised” at the prospect of owning a home.
Homeownership isn’t the end objective for the American Dream in the United States, but it’s certainly the foundation. Owning a home is not only a way to build financial security and generational wealth, but it also symbolizes an oft-overlooked aspect of the American ethos: joining a community.
It is a significant problem for younger Americans to feel disenfranchised. Our country's social moorings are rooted in community, as Alexis de Tocqueville noted in his seminal work Democracy in America.
As young people lose a sense of community, social and political disenchantment often follows. Recent events in global politics highlight the damage high prices and massive debts do to stability.
For example, Kenya is a nation struggling with sizable debts. In an effort to address this problem, the President introduced a widely unpopular Finance Bill that resulted in tax increases for the populace.
The result was wide-scale protests amongst Millennials and Gen Z and a partially burned parliament.
These events occurred just in the last few months. Since the 2020 Pandemic, countries like Argentina, Sri Lanka, France, and Pakistan have experienced similar unrest and anxieties over perceived reckless spending by government officials and irresponsible fiscal policies.
As debts soar and affordability issues continue to plague the electorate, fingers often point towards not just politicians but also economic and political systems. Hence the rise of illiberalism around the globe.
In the United States, many are beginning to question the merits of free trade and our democratic institutions. This is one of the reasons why populist leaders like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have harnessed the energy of voters in recent political cycles.
If the system appears broken, why would voters not want a Zealot to shock it to its very core?
Running up large national debts is irresponsible and short-sighted. Not only will the economic burden come to a head for future generations, but it also risks undermining the very institutions we hold near and dear.
The United States certainly is not Kenya, nor is it Bolivia. Developing countries existing on the global periphery are more likely to experience the extreme ramifications of global economic challenges.
But our nation is not immune to the discontent and malice that emerges from a fiscal and monetary policy run amok. Macro and microeconomic policies are intrinsically related. Without this harsh realization, politicians will remain aloof, and our citizenry will continue to gravitate towards illiberal ideas and anti-elite sentiment.
Our nation's debt is a major problem. Younger voters know that they’ll bear the burden of this spending.
Affordability, if not addressed meaningfully, will continue to alienate our electorate and undermine our sense of community.
We would be wise to look to other countries as reality checks for what a genuine fiscal crisis looks like before it’s too late.
