Are American citizens responsible for the huge national debt in the first place? And when I say "responsible" I don't mean who should 'hold' or own the debt, but rather who made it so large in the first place.
The old high water-mark of national debt was in the 30's and 40's under FDR, for reasons that should seem obvious: Great Depressio…
Are American citizens responsible for the huge national debt in the first place? And when I say "responsible" I don't mean who should 'hold' or own the debt, but rather who made it so large in the first place.
The old high water-mark of national debt was in the 30's and 40's under FDR, for reasons that should seem obvious: Great Depression and WW2. After that, the national debt had slowly but surely decreased for 30 years straight...right up until the 80's. Since Carter/Reagan, the debt has fairly uniformly increased dramatically every year to the obscene levels that it is at now. It almost makes FDR levels look quaint by comparison now.
Did regular citizens have a say in this? I suppose one could argue that they did via voting, but that's putting all of the responsibility on the voter and none on the people who actually had the power to do all of this.
Are American citizens responsible for the huge national debt in the first place? And when I say "responsible" I don't mean who should 'hold' or own the debt, but rather who made it so large in the first place.
The old high water-mark of national debt was in the 30's and 40's under FDR, for reasons that should seem obvious: Great Depression and WW2. After that, the national debt had slowly but surely decreased for 30 years straight...right up until the 80's. Since Carter/Reagan, the debt has fairly uniformly increased dramatically every year to the obscene levels that it is at now. It almost makes FDR levels look quaint by comparison now.
Did regular citizens have a say in this? I suppose one could argue that they did via voting, but that's putting all of the responsibility on the voter and none on the people who actually had the power to do all of this.