Danger said:
Money can only be loaned into existence. That means if all debts were paid, there would be no money in circulation.
Bingo, very few folks understand that money is debt. Say you have $100 in your pocket, all you have is $100 worth of services owed to you, by someone else.
I like the wimpy analogy, for it's simplicity. Say you make hamburgers, wimpy comes along and says "I'll gladly pay you tues. for a hamburger today.." You say no of course. Along comes the banks, wimpy takes out a loan for the amount of money for a hamburger, and then pays you...
He's happy, he gets his hamburger, you are happy, you get your money...and viola, our economy in a nutshell. Multiply that by 300 million people, millions of transactions every day.
You soon get enough wimpies buying your hamburgers, and you create jobs, etc...the world goes round and round.
The problem, is when the debt overpowers the ability to produce. This is what we are experiencing now. The debt, basically future productivity...is not what it should be.
The wimpies don't have the ability to earn enough to cover all the hamburgers they ate.
Now take the 170K loan/debt load of this gal, that's a lot of freaking hamburgers she ate. Is her photography degrees going to have the future productivity to cover her debt? In our job market? Basic needs always come first, shelter, food,etc.
The longer we linger in this mess, the worse the outcome. Hence the gov's wreckless spending policies. They want to inject the equivalent of 'speed' into the economy, but's not working yet.