If the goverment prints and makes money why can't they payoff the national debt?

:-) It doesnt work that way. When the government prints money, it is actually printing a guarantee saying that I have assets worth that much with me, so u can come anytime and surrender this promissory note to me and take that asset away. Generally it is the gold in the reserve. It may also be other currencies that comes through exports. If the government pays the complete national debt as u suggest, then ur country will not have any working capital remaining would it? Like u have some monthly income coming in, and u have a fairly large debt which may or may not be covered by ur monthly income. If u clear the debt, u wont have anything to eat! How will u go to office to earn for the following month! So some planning is essential, part payment is essential, and some targets have to be set, and plans to meet those targets have to be set rolling. :-) Nice question. :-)

It is not that simple. You just can't print money. There are things that are pre-requisite on printing money, like gold reserves, and the economy of the country.

Amen to that. I have said that all along too. I was told that the government has to have enough money in Gold to cover the money that they print. It really does not make any sense to me though. I think they could print enough money to where everyone could get out of debt and start fresh.

Because printing money devalues it...which in turn causes more debt, besides, no one wants american dollars to pay off debt anymore. China refuses to accept it anymore. See, we don't have that much gold in this country. The dollar is essentially supposed to be a paper representation of actual gold or silver tucked neatly away somewhere in the country...but it no longer is, we don't have that much tucked away, all we have is a pile of worthless...or well, next to it at least...paper, and the more we print the more it's worth even less. I wonder if we're in the NEGATIVE numbers yet... AND the national reser ve tries to keep its monopoly on money this way. They're not technically a government branch and as long as money's backed up by gold or silver it's supposed to be legal tender...but the government's been famous for raiding businesses that, like the federal reserve used to, give you physical and legal representations of money of actual worth. What rules and regulations, Tucker?

How wonderful could it be if that can be done. But I think that would not be possible. As you can see when money is printed there should be a corresponding value as to the amount of money printed. If I am not mistaken, some countries based that value on the amount of Gold, or Silver in the coffers. I am not sure but during the early times, we have been using the Gold Reserve in our country. So we print the money in bills corresponding to the amount of Gold Reserves that we have. But now, I think we are using the Dollar Reserve. Meaning, the amount of money that we print and circulate within the whole country has a corresponding dollar amount within our coffers. Thus, if we just print money as to no limits, those bills does not have a corresponding value and are therefore considered fake.

While the government has the ability to print huge amounts of money, they will certainly never do so. This is because as more and more money is thrown into the economy without removing older money first, the money begins to become less valuable. This devaluing of money is called inflation as more and more money is needed to buy the same goods as before. When this happens, what money people have saved up becomes worthless and the economy will begin to fall even faster than it already is.

I have mentioned the meaning of inflation and deflation below. A country can print notes to the amount of gold available in that country. We feel that the government should print notes and pay off the debts of the country but its not like that. I the law of demand and supply applies. If there is excess amount of money flow in the market then there will be inflation if there is rise in inflation then there will be rise in price of the products. if there is no excess amount of money flow in the market then there will be deflation, if there is deflation then there the value of money will rise. The country with inflation is much more better than the country with deflation. Inflation means the value of money decreases and value of the product increases. This leads to rise in product rates. Deflation means the value of money increases and the value of the product decreases. This increases the purchasing power but this will impact the economy very badly when compared to inflation. A country to progress both inflation and deflation should go hand in hand. Hence we cannot print money directly due to these reasons. Let me know if you want to know more. If i am wrong in any matter correct me.

If every country would this, I guess it would look like as if money has no more value. Corruption will be more rampant.

Hi tuckersheri, a currency has value probably only within your own country when printed in excess. Once you enter into trade with other countries , one needs to balance according to the trade agreement.You cnnot print more and flood the country with notes that may have no value elsewhere and eventually it will backfire on your economy. It is like bartar system where you have to have something to buy or exchange it for something else, and need to have more to be able to possess more things. Money is that something and it squarely depends on your country's wealth...

The government can print as much money as many gold and silver they have. Plus, most of the money goes to social security, welfare, food stamp, education, etc. This time is bad around, with unemployment rising people are getting workers compensation and welfare which is increasing the national debt.

HI Tucker, I am not able to stopmy laugh at this question. I think need to study economics and a bit then you will be able to understand how the currency system works. Now comes to your point. My dear friend, if government start doing it, the whole economy of the country will fall. This is the mechanism which one has to understand.

The government could not simply print more money because it would cause so much money to go into the economy that the value of a dollar would just decrease and our whole economy would eventually collapse! Which is something we really don't need right now.

The money printed in a government is relevant to the silver or gold that they have. Printing money can be done by anyone who can have access to the machinery of money making, but if it doesn't carry an equivalent silver or gold, it doesn't have any value to it thus it's considered counterfeit or non negotiable.

I have asked myself the same question, how can things be this bad, or so they say, they have the ability to print money, this makes no sense to me at all, someone answered this question for me but I can't for the life of me remember what was said, great post hope we get the answer we are looking for, cause this is ridiculous.

I know in my country when the government wants to print money they need to pay in gold first. Don't know whether the same applies in America but I can imagine unwanted events happening when printing too much money... Deflation for example...