this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
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- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
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- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
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The top 25 US billionaires could pay off US debt. Not even every billionaire. They total about 3 trillion net worth.
That's ignoring say the $60 billion or so Apple has in cash and who knows what other companies have
"As of January 2026, the total U.S. national debt has exceeded $38.5 trillion. This figure represents the total money borrowed by the federal government to cover annual deficits, which is growing rapidly, with a rise of over $2 trillion in 2025 alone."
I definitely want to tax the hell out of the rich, but we are in a deep hole. A long term systemic change will serve us better (or in addition to) talking all of their money now.
This debt is not important dude. You can pay any debt that is taken with your own money. You just cant pay if your debt is in other types, like gold silver or other currencies.
They created this system intentionally, so that they wont tax the rich and they make us poorer by printing money, and they have an excuse for stupid things.
The only problem with paying this debt, is people starts to distrust us dollar around the world, which is what they should do. I checked, and 100% of the debt is in USD. So, the govn can pay it right away.
No offense but i think you should learn a bit about more about economics, specifically about how currency works. Long story short, if a currency loses a lot of value in comparison to other currencies, the 'local' system collapses. So the very important task of a government (or its central bank really) is to keep it's relative value high (not too high, but that's a story for another day. The us gov (or the Federal Reserve in this case) would fail very very hard if they would decide to create 38 trillion usd. It is especially problematic considering the financial problems that it would cause are on top of all the other shit that's going on.
Yes I agree. It wouldnt be problem-free. What I mean is, you can pay the debt, if your debt was in another currency, you might be in a position that you just cant pay the debt.
Firstly the debt is for a long time. The debt until the next year is 10 trillion. You can pay this debt with wealth taxes if you dont want to print more money. Secondly, USA has to produce. It stopped producing good tech, China nowadays owns every tech production. If it earns money, it can pay this debt.
Thirdly, most of the debt is domestic and to the rich. You can just stop paying this. You are the government dude, you are taxing people's labor, you are taxing every transaction, most countries have stamp tax that doesnt even exist, you can oc tax this money too, and sometimes governments do this.
We have to tax the rich, even if we paid all the debt, we still have to tax the rich. This is required for justice, this is required for people to love their country, this is required to stop poverty, homelessness. When we have a just society people are going to help their country willingly. But currently, some people are killing others, raping bribing, doing anything and we can do nothing about it, while being hungry.
Having that debt played a big part in the US gaining the soft power that it used to have. Long term I'm not sure we'd even want to eliminate that debt but maybe target to keep it near the inflation rate.
Basically "if you owe the bank a dollar you have a problem. If you owe the bank a billion dollars the bank has a problem" but extended out to international scale. If your roi depended on the US being sound and successful you'll take steps to ensure that outcome.
Oh I'm way off on the amount. I think I had that 2 Trillion increase in my head as the full debt.
I fully support long term change though yeah. I feel like the entire country, not just politicians but business men and regular day to day folk, don't think more than the next quarter.
The corporations can't see past their next set of financial statements for action that is true. Not legally even by their charters. They could be sued by their shareholders for not maximizing shareholder value.
The debt itself means nothing. The only thing that matters are the interest. So sure, a debt increasing much faster than the economy is an issue. But there is no point in throwing around big numbers. The US GDP was $31.8 trillions in 2025.
The debt will grow. It is intended to grow, that's by design. You should have a small deficit every year. That's why the rest of the economy should follow, so that the interest are not becoming overwhelming. The current issue is the US budget (but that's not the only one, see France for example) is heavily imbalanced because of very large tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy and corporates. With that, you have the description of the issue as well as the obvious solution.
Nitpick- that is the deficit, not the debt. Like elsewhere said, debt is near 40 trillion.
Otherwise I still agree with the suggestion.
It's not even "the debt"
It's their fucking debt. It's the literal bill they keep skipping out on.