National Debt: £6000 per household

The £6000 per household was referring to the amount of government borrowing in the past year, which is about £156bn.

The total national debt is £893.4bn so that would mean about £34500 per household.

The approach you are suggesting is to pay off the debt through a short term increase in taxation, the problem is when you take more of everyones disposable income, they have less to spend in the economy so aggregate demand falls, businesses realise they are overproducing and so cut back and lay people off. Unemployment rises, and taxation revenues from profits fall so the government has to then make up the shortfall in taxes through borrowing.

Really the only way to pay off the debt is to take a long term approach of a sensible fiscal position (government spending within our means) and promoting economic growth so that taxation revenues gradually rise and can chip away at the debt.

The current edginess about the size of the deficit (difference between govt spending and taxation receipts ie what we borrow on the markets) is that if the people who we borrow from start thinking we are never going to get round to paying back, they will refuse to lend to us unless we offer them a higher rate of interest, which makes debt repayment harder.

Erm, I'm a student, increasing my personal debt by thousands every year. How do you expect me to pay £6000 to bail out a government whose predecessors created such a large deficit?

It's a nice idea and all, but too many people wouldn't be able to afford it, and I don't really see why we should pay it - we didn't cause the mess.

Public sector cuts can rake in millions, so let's start there.

Your figures are completely wrong. UK National Debt - £156 billion?! Hahaha . We wish it was that low! The current figure is ~£908 billion and expected to rise to £1 trillion this year.

The current debt is £14,518 per person, not per household, per person. Every household in the UK will be paying ~£1,900 this year just to cover then interest on the loan.

In answer to your question, no I would not pay the money as it is the government's fault it got this way in the first place, through reckless spending of taxpayer's money and reckless borrowing. I don't intend to give them any more. Us paying it off will just encourage them to do it in future - they have to face the music just like banks like Lehman Bros had to, otherwise what's to stop the government being reckless again if they know we'll just pay it off.

No it was not it was due to the government bailing out the banks, we had deficits in previous years because of government increased spending on education and health. How is that reckless

Im not saying cuts dont have to be made in public services, but how can you not give a damn about some of the public services which you depend on? could you imagine the world without free schools, without health services or streets with not a single police? Poor people will be the first people who will suffer the consequences, but sooner or later it will harm even the rich. if the public hasn't got much money, they're not going to spend money on businesses that rich own.

Edit: oops I misread

When you are borrowing more than you can afford, that is reckless. Like someone remortgaging their house to give the money to charity, that'd still be reckless.

maybe you personally didn't cause the mess, but the fact is the country is in mess, and instead of blaming each other we should work together to solve the problem. what do you want to do, hang the bankers that caused this mess? would it solve your problems? would your personal debts stop rising?

You said 'through reckless spending of taxpayer's money and reckless borrowing', I'm showing you why it wasn't reckless, you don't seem to even know why we had deficits in previous years nor why we have a high deficit now. Furthermore you edit about 'facing the music' like Lehman brothers is quite ridiculous since we are always paying off national debt through our taxes.

I'm studying economics so I know how taxation works, Mr Patronising. I was responding to the OP's suggestion that we give the government additional money.

we are always paying off national debt through our taxes.

The economy can be properly fixed so that we're prepared for the future, rather than just patching a hole with duct tape for somebody to take a lighter to it.

Not if you're running a budget deficit you're not.

Every year since 2002 has been a budget deficit thanks to Labour budgets.

Yes we are , The bank of England is always repaying back bills that are maturing every year.

what also important is what its been spent on.

Not if you're running a budget deficit you're not.

Every year since 2002 has been a budget deficit thanks to Labour budgets.

You said 'through reckless spending of taxpayer's money and reckless borrowing', I'm showing you why it wasn't reckless, you don't seem to even know why we had deficits in previous years nor why we have a high deficit now. Furthermore you edit about 'facing the music' like Lehman brothers is quite ridiculous since we are always paying off national debt through our taxes.

Not if you're running a budget deficit you're not.

Every year since 2002 has been a budget deficit thanks to Labour budgets.

If the total size of your debt is not decreasing, then you're not paying your debt off. You're servicing it. If I pay off 100 t-bills each year, using the money from raising another 100: then I have not paid off anything.

Your argument sounds really stupid and suggests you're out of your depth.



The department for work and pensions spent 135 billion in 2008/2009.

Let me think about that one.