You’re absolutely right that projecting our current debt and revenue unchanged into the future looks disastrous. HW Bush raised taxes and it very likely contributed to his reelection loss. Clinton raised taxes and balanced the budget. I think it’s definitely possible to begin paying off the debt in such a way that doesn’t crush the economy with an austerity backlash. Both of those presidents’ tax increases didn’t kill the economy. It took W Bush’s “ownership society” deregulation to do that.

There’s also the possibility of a future economic shift that could put everything as we know it in flux: a new energy source, automation that replaces overseas manufacturing, or asteroid mining are all examples of things that are at least possible if not plausible to be on the horizon. Not too mention something we can’t even conceive of. Very few people in 1900 would predict the model T was on the horizon.

I’m definitely apprehensive about the economic future but I’m personally not terrified that it’ll be some kind of doomsday.