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To: Oblomov who wrote (362022)	3/13/2008 6:30:31 PM
From: stan_hughes	Respond to of 436258

Well, they exist as debts IMO to the extent that they are defined-benefit entitlement obligations of the government under existing legislation. I acknowledge that any obligation you care to name can be struck down by statute and/or by the courts, lessening or even eliminating the liability to pay it (or continue to pay it), but in that context you could also say the same thing about a corporation's debt that could be struck down or relieved by a bankruptcy judgment. So maybe it's a bit of a case of po-tay-to, po-tah-to, to-may-to, to-mah-to, i.e. we are splitting hairs over what we should call future social obligations (are they debt in the accounting sense, or are they something else) and I don't have a particular axe to grind one way or the other as to what to call them -- they are what they are. Better that the pols start paying attention to that $9T in national debt, because there's no question that it's real enough -- and a lot of it is held by foreigners. Therein lies the vulnerability