Debt - I'll share my thoughts with a smaller audience.

I posted this on Facebook this morning and thought I'd preserve it.

So back to debt.

Is the rate of rise or level of debt reasonable? Would stablizing or reducing debt be good or is rising debt better for British society? Is the national debt and deficit a danger to the UK in the light of the collapse of Greece, Ireland and Portugal? And what is the level of national debt?

Most of the comments here have been arguing based on the published figure of just under a trillion pounds. However, like the banks, government (all colours) have been keen on off balance sheet acccounting. It does not include PFI liabilities, pension liabilities, bank bailout, quantitive easing etc. These will all have to be paid for by current and future taxpayers.

Personally I find the level of government liabilities abhorant. The longer term issue is how many taxpayers will there be to pay for these liabilities. It seems to me that we are in the middle of a Ponzi scheme and explains the need for mass immigration and rise in the pension age, without more taxpayers than there would otherwise be then the national finances will crash.

So I conclude that those claiming that the level of debt is not a problem are missing a point. The argument is that the debt has been higher in the past and the nation was able to reduce it in better times. But this reduction occurred during a period of massive population growth with the consequent growth in the economy and tax base. The population is reducing in much of Europe and I think it is unreasonable to plan for a doubling in UK tax payers to handle the future debt.