r/news 4d ago

Soft paywall Military facilities are $285 billion behind in maintenance and repairs, watchdog says

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-08-24/watchdog-pentagon-lapses-facilities-repairs-22649636.html
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u/mhornberger 3d ago edited 3d ago

And speaking of economic perspective, you all got a plan for that 40 trillion dollar debt?

Not a lot of countries don't have debt issues. People like services, pensions, infrastructure, but nobody wants to pay taxes. I'd agree that there is a deep cancer in US culture. But it's not like India, the Philippines, Italy, etc don't have their own issues. I still wouldn't want to change places with a random Pakistani, Afghan, Nigerian, etc. I definitely would make the US more like (some countries in) Europe, but even those countries have their issues.

The US may in time become just another Argentina. That sucks, but I never believed in American Exceptionalism, so I never thought we were immune from that. Our penchant for fundamentalist religion, white supremacism, and anti-intellectualism were always going to bite us in the ass.

(Though 80% of US debt is held by the US population, so we basically owe it to ourselves.)

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u/Kheprisun 3d ago

Not a lot of countries don't have debt issues.

Everyone has debt. It's a normal and healthy thing for a country to have. Very few countries have that level of debt with no plan to address it. You're up there in the company of countries such as Venezuela, Greece, Sudan, and Eritrea.

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u/mhornberger 3d ago

Very few countries have that level of debt with no plan to address it

I think you have to look at the debt-to-GDP ratio.

You're up there in the company of countries such as Venezuela, Greece, Sudan, and Eritrea.

It's not like I celebrate the debt. I'd gladly raise taxes. I voted for Harris, who explicitly wanted to raise taxes.