Public debt is no more of a burden on your children than a large bank balance.

Those worried about government debt often claim that it is an unfair burden on future generations who will have to pay it back. This is completely wrong. Government debt is a liability to the private sector. It is a claim against government by the private sector. That means it is a private sector ASSET. This is similar to bank deposits. These are a liability of the bank to us, the depositors. It would be accurate to call customer deposits in banks bank debt in the same way that we call government liabilities to us government debt. Similarly, just as we consider this 'bank debt', i.e. the deposits that we have in the bank, to be our assets that we can pass on to our children, government debt represents private sector assets that we can spend in future. Clearly it makes no sense to call this a burden on our children.

The main difference between private sector deposits in banks (bank debt) and government debt (private sector deposits held by the government) is that government debt it far more secure since a government cannot go bankrupt.

Some may argue that government debt eventually has to be repaid and that will require higher taxes in future, which will be a burden on future generations. However there is no reason why a government should ever have to pay back all its debts. Individual debts have to be paid when they come due but total debt need never be reduced. This is similar to banks who have to pay out customers all the time but don't have to reduce the overall level of deposits they hold. These can increase indefinitely.

The only reason that taxes need to go up or government spending needs to drop is to reduce demand if the economy is overheating and inflation is picking up. It is hardly a burden to have to cope with such rapid growth that these measures become necessary. What is absurd is to cut spending and increase taxes when there is no growth and there is unemployment and excess capacity. It just damages the economy further, as has been demonstrated so clearly in Eurozone countries and the UK.