It’s not just the net external debt, flu. That’s actually fairly small compared to the perceived net internal debt. Every $1 of debt is someone else’s savings. But if you were to do a survey of US voters, and ask them their (non-equity) savings and their debt, you’d find the average debt number is much bigger, and many more people see themselves as in net debt than vice versa.
That’s because a lot of people’s savings are indirectly owned, through pension plans etc in which they have an interest, but whose assets they don’t manage or even see. And wealth is concentrated, so a lot savings are in the hands of a small % of people.
The result is that most US voters see low interest rates, debt forgiveness, etc in a favorable light. That the entire country has maybe 10% more debt than savings is just icing on the cake, one more nudge in the direction of making debt repudiation attractive politically.
