"jim rozen" wrote in message
...
In article , tonyp says...

I say again: let's privatize the national debt.

Sorry but I gotta say it. This is the dumbest idea I've
ever heard. Not because it's not a good idea in principle,
but I am horrified to think what would happen after this
was done.

Basically the last thing a bankrupt person needs is somebody
giving them another credit card. Once the debt was paid
down, the politicians would go on a spending spree.

Jim

You wouldn't have to worry about that. Despite the appeal of Tony's idea
(and it does sound appealing), dropping that much debt on individuals would
bring consumer spending to a screeching halt and drive us into the deepest
depression in American history.

Something like 60% of the American economy is consumer spending. You don't
play around with that. It's very sensitive to peoples' projections of
personal income versus debt. We can handle a lot of debt but, if you go over
a threshhold that appears to be around $15,000 or so per person, excluding
home mortgages and cars, everybody stops spending. Ask any retailer. They
watch that number like hawks.

Ed Huntress