One overlooked factor that helped the US after WWII is that we were the manufacturing base for most of the world for decades after the end of the war. Over 50% of manufactured goods were made in the US in the decade after WWII.
Manufacuring might have been a viable path out of debt after WWII, but it isn't right now. If you look at Germany, its manufacturing sector is in decline, and this is the country's strength. China's outcompeting it. Not only is China no longer just producing cheap knockoffs, it has a better manufacturing ecosystem, and it has surplus manufacturing capacity.
>If you look at Germany, its manufacturing sector is in decline, and this is the country's strength.
German manufacturing is in decline because it relied on dirt-cheap Russian energy. It's not cost competitive otherwise.
https://www.energyconnects.com/news/gas-lng/2025/february/ge...Europe has spent three painful years weaning itself off gas from the east with the biggest impact felt in Germany, the region’s biggest economy. German industry was built on cheap Russian gas and rising energy prices have already trammeled growth and forced some manufacturers to move production abroad.
Why past tense? Dilution remains a good solution to most pollutants, carbon included. That it stops working after a point doesn't make it useless per se.
They reduced the debt under Clinton. It’s a question of political will not physics. US taxes are low compared to their counterparts and they could choose to raise these taxes for various activities.
And then came GWB and Dick Cheney with "Reagan proved deficits do not matter". Right away they slashed dividend income taxes, capital gains taxes, phased out estate tax, took away Medicare's ability to negotiate lower drug prices or re-import them cheaper from Canada [0], and started two long expensive wars (Afghanistan and Iraq).
(It is my personal opinion that the current US Financial situation is due to GWB's presidency. He started this country on this road.)
Social security and Medicare liabilities mostly wiped out any gains
What surplus there was came from both tax increases and reductions in spending. Along with a strong economy and low employment for tax revenue in the dotcom heyday
Any realistic change to pay down the debt would require substantial structural changes at this point. There’s no political incentive to do anything about that until runaway inflation and the US credit ratings start to really mess things up, and by that point it’s pretty much too late
My own country used to care a lot about not spending more then comes in. But when other countries are spending billions on their creditcard this becomes increasingly difficult so we're releasing the floodgates! And you can borrow A LOT with a triple A credit score.
After WW2, we had a lot of young people working. Now we have a lot of old people not working and out-voting the young to take their money to propagate Boomer Luxury Communism.
