The Unsustainable Level of Public Debt in the US

A very sobre analysis of the problematic US debt situation was published in the Houston Chronicle this week. The column, titled "Wake-up call's for us all", was written by Loren Steffy.

On Monday, Moody's Investors Service, one of the credit-rating agencies that blessed those pungent loans that now beleaguer Citi and Merrill, warned that the U.S. could lose its triple-A credit rating within a decade.

That's a wake-up call for the rest of us.

We are addicted to spending. We buy based on want rather than need or ability. The bills are a worry for later, a someday that we postpone like a dentist appointment.

When the unsustainability of the US public debt becomes increasingly mainstream, it is going to be interesting to see the diversity of proposed solutions. It is a certainty that some of the proposals will contain fascist or other authoritarian ideas. It's going to be a hard time for champions of anti-authoritarian ideals.