National Debt
The national debt is around 12 trillion dollars. The average citizens share is around 40k. The US is going into debt around 4 billion per day. Now, that's a lot!
The huge national debt is another symbol of the American culture and how spending today is the American way. In times of crisis, the Federal government reaches out to help people. How? They spend money that they do not have. The American culture is rich with overspending and keeping up with the neighbors. Politicians buy into the same rhetoric that everyday consumers fall into. The idea of spend now, pay later will eventually wreak havoc. Why? The later is going to eventually come. And, the putting off of all the pain will make it that much more difficult, when the time actually comes.
The national debt is so large that the only way to take care of it is through inflation. You can expect to see inflation rise to levels never before seen. When that happens, people that have money will have it eroded in value. For people on fixed incomes, this can pose a real risk to their standard of living.
The only winners in an inflationary environment are those people that have loans. It is easier to get money to pay back a loan when there is a lot more money going around.
The higher inflation will further erode the value of the dollar. That will make exports rise and be good for some companies. However, imported goods, like oil, will become much more expensive. Companies will be forced to pay higher amounts for outsourced parts and labor. That, in turn, will reduce the standard of living in the United States.
You can expect the Federal Reserve to try and reduce this trend as soon as the economy stabilizes. However, there isn't much wiggle room anymore. The debt is getting so large that some government analysts are worried about the ability of the government to pay the interest, alone. The government can always pay it back because all they have to do is to raise taxes. In other words, your standard of living is likely to decrease due to the debt.
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