1130 The Dogbert theory of the debt

November 30, 2009, 9:34 am

The Dogbert theory of the debt
借金のドッグバート論
When I was on This Week yesterday, George Will tried his hand at the debt scare thing, saying that we’re in terrible shape because by 2019 the interest on the debt will be SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS. (That should be read in the voice of Dr. Evil). I get that a lot — people who talk about the big numbers which are supposed to imply that things are terrible, impossible, we’re doomed, etc.
昨日、ABCニュースのThis Weekのコーナに出演していたら、ジョージ・ウィルが借金の怖い話に手を出していた。我々は２０１９年までに借金の金利は、数千億ドルに達するため悲惨な状況になると言っていた。
ヒトは、自体を最悪や不測の状況であることを匂わそうとしなければいけない時に大きな数字を語る。私は、そんなことは重々承知している。

The point, of course, is that everything about the United States is big. So you have to interpret numbers accordingly. As the graphic above shows — it’s taken from an article that managed to maintain a grim tone while reporting numbers that actually weren’t all that grim — what we’re talking about is a debt-service burden roughly comparable to that under the first President Bush. How many of the people now warning about the impossible burden of currently projected debt were issuing similar warnings back in 1992? Not many, I’d guess.