Now that we know how God views debt, let's zoom in on specific debts: national debt, credit card debt, and automobile debt have many negative consequences. Let's look at each of them.

NOTE: see this post for a discussion of mortgages.

Table of Contents* Our National Debt* Biting the Bullet to Pay Off Our National Debt* Sacrificing Our Children's Future for Our Present* The Bible's Condemnation of Our National Debt* How Much Debt Do We Individually Have?* Credit Card Debt* Automobile Debt

We can get an elevated view of debt by considering the situation in our country. Then we can zoom in and look at the situation in households.

Our National Debt

Michael Farris is a lawyer and the founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and Patrick Henry College. In 2001 he wrote:

We should demand that our government respect the economic freedom of our children and grandchildren by eliminating the national debt. In the fall of 1992, the national debt was $4 trillion. That is $16,000 for every man, woman, and child in America. A $4 trillion stack of $1000 bills would be 245 miles high.Michael Farris, The Homeschooling Father (Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2002), 110.

The national debt was $4 trillion in 1992, $6 trillion in 2001, $15 trillion in 2011, and it is expected to reach $30 trillion in 2021. Why do we have a debt ceiling if we keep raising it? If the purpose is to prevent debt from exceeding a certain level but we raise the ceiling when it’s reached, haven’t we defeated the purpose? We should get rid of the pretenses that have no real significance and be honest about our actions: We take on debt recklessly.

Biting the Bullet to Pay Off Our National Debt

The way our nation is accruing debt is unsustainable, and ultimately, there are only three possible ways to change the course we’re on. The first possibility is to raise taxes. The second possibility is to spend less. But most economists believe either strategy compromises the economy. Lowering taxes stimulates growth and spending, but also increases the debt. As the government spends money or engages in “quantitative easing,” also known as stimulus spending (injecting large amounts of money into the economy), the economy grows, but so does the debt. It should also be noted that some economists believe when the government stops stimulus spending, the economy returns to where it would have been without it, but with one exception: an increased national debt.

The third solution is, to put it bluntly, bite the bullet. Suffer through difficult years, including economic slowdowns,