Grow the GDP.

Editor,

After WWII the American national debt was 122% of GDP.
In 1970 it was 28%.

The total national debt in 1946 was $270.1 billion.
It increased fairly consistently to $380 billion in 1970.

The debt was 50% bigger in 1970 than in 1946, but its percentage of GDP was 80% less.

Why? Because GDP increased prodigiously.

If you are worried about debt as a percentage of GDP, grow the GDP.

How? Tax the people and the corporations who are hoarding capital, and invest it in infrastructure, research, education, renewable energy, and green technology.

Tax cuts for the rich, tax loopholes for the rich and corporations, and subsidies for profitable corporations like oil and agribusiness drain capital into hands that do not stimulate GDP.

Capital creates wealth when it is invested in productive enterprises. Capital hoarded and/or used to speculate doesn't create anything. It doesn't create wealth, and it doesn't stimulate GDP.

Re: "Portugal’s Debt Efforts May Be Warning for Greece" (2/15/2012)