Thanks, that makes sense. The tension we have with other superpowers bothers me more than the dollar figure itselfAs the govt prints the money, the kitchen table family budget analog doesn't work.
A country should use as much debt as it can to build infrastructure and other economic drivers as possible, up to the point where it starts to squeeze out private investment, fuels inflation, or reaches the limit of investors' willingness to buy debt at reasonable rates.
Every serious economist would agree a certain amount of debt is better than zero debt and all would also agree that too much debt is a problem. But , every economist will have their own individual number as to where the line is crossed.
Personally, I think we are getting very close to it, so support levelling off our debt growth rate, but am not freaked out by debt in general.