The highest debt:GDP ratio on the list under either measure is Japan's under the CIA measure, at a little over 200% of GDP. That's not more than it can produce in the forseeable future (its a little more than it produces in two years.)
It may be more than they can are likely to pay off in the forseeable future, but then, that's a completely different story.
> It is not the tax money they are spending.
That's not a question that is addressed by debt:GDP ratio, its a question that is addressed by deficit:budget ratio, which is a very different beast.
There was a country just a little over 20 years ago that was in debt up to its neck and was trying to do global surveillance and project global power. Half of the world was screwed when it fell, and not everybody in the eastern block did recover yet. God help us all if this happens to the usa.
After you misrepresented the last one without actually linking to it, I'm not really inclined to expend the effort to verify your characterization of this one.
> There was a country just a little over 20 years ago that was in debt up to its neck and was trying to do global surveillance and project global power.
AFAICT, the Soviet Union, just before it fell, had an estimated $65-$100 billion in foreign debt with a GDP on the order of $2.5 trillion -- it wasn't really "in debt up to its neck".
If you look at the GDP to national debt map on wikipedia you will notice, that most (if not all) first world countries, the beacons of human rights and democracy, owe more that they can produce in the foreseeable future. It is not the tax money they are spending.