Re:Taiwan remains world's fifth biggest creditor at end of 2018
by wrong_variable on Sunday June 16, 2019 @04:50PM
(#20197804)
It depends ..
China still have a lot of poor people.
Normally you want credit to flow from richer parts of the world to poorer parts of the world - where there is a lot more potential for growth.
NNIT is meaningless metric for larger countries.
China is a net creditor because they have certain national interest, their large credit position provides a buffer in international trade.
US acts a gold vault in international trading, China has certain industries that "generate gold" but their main focus is meeting the demand for their domestic market, just like most other countries in the list.
Re:Taiwan remains world's fifth biggest creditor at end of 2018
by sieabahlpark on Sunday June 16, 2019 @04:40PM
(#20197750)
No but it is probably not a great idea to let it go unchecked either.
Re:Taiwan remains world's fifth biggest creditor at end of 2018
by achingtooth on Sunday June 16, 2019 @04:49PM
(#20197797)
You're assuming we're maximizing the productivity on our debt. I would say the US is spending money on the government equivalent of takeout food and flatscreen TVs.
Re:Taiwan remains world's fifth biggest creditor at end of 2018
by astrange on Sunday June 16, 2019 @08:05PM
(#20198739)
4K TVs are incredibly cheap yet good quality these days, and it's not like you need more than one.
Re:Taiwan remains world's fifth biggest creditor at end of 2018
by achingtooth on Monday June 17, 2019 @01:47AM
(#20200233)
That wasn't really my point, my point was that we take on enormous debt and we spend it on things that aren't the best. Why don't we spend more on infrastructure, research, investing in clean energy, etc? I understand that we need a military to protect our position in the world, but I'm not sure $750 billion dollars per year is needed. Sure some of that is spent on research, but I think there are more efficient ways to spend the money.
Re:Taiwan remains world's fifth biggest creditor at end of 2018
by astrange on Monday June 17, 2019 @02:39AM
(#20200454)
Well, because everyone in the US has brain damage from inhaling leaded gasoline in the 80s, and so they're stuck in 1992 and think all government policy means bombing countries in the Middle East while ignoring Asia, Africa and their own country.
People tend to react to news about national debt like it's their credit card bill that they ran up on takeout food and flatscreen TVs. It's not really the same thing.