The National Debt Is a Game Everyone Plays, But No One Wins

By Cayla Ashurov

Imagine a game that everyone in the country must play. The game has a big scoreboard and a central pile of points. When you play, you take points to earn rewards: making your teammates happy, earning applause, or improving your position for the next round. The more points you take, the better you look. Everyone is watching.

But there’s a catch. The points you take don’t disappear, they turn into negative points that appear on the scoreboard in future rounds, long after the current players have left. There’s no referee, no buzzer, no penalty for borrowing. In fact, the game quietly encourages it.

Players take points steadily over time. Those who refuse fall behind. Some promise to borrow less in the next round, but the game is relentless, and few last long enough to keep their promises. Eventually, negative points pile up. Everyone can see them, but nothing forces the current players to address them. The next round is always more important than future consequences.

The game allows unlimited retries. Failed strategies can be tried again under a new name. When borrowing causes problems, the common response is to borrow even more. Nothing truly ends, and the scoreboard never resets. If one team stops playing aggressively while the other continues, the careful team will likely lose. Cooperation could help, but the rules don’t require it.

Taking no points at all is also losing. Players who refuse to borrow can’t build or fix anything and quickly fall behind. The game slows, the crowd loses interest, and the scoreboard looks clean, but nothing moves. The game needs some borrowing to keep moving, but too much makes future rounds impossible.

Over time, the game becomes less enjoyable. Winning feels easier, but the scoreboard worsens each round. Negative points pile up faster than anyone can remove them. Players talk about fixing the game, but that would require changing the rules that helped them win. Only by fully understanding the game does its real name become clear:

The game is the national debt. Government spending beyond its means is like taking points from the pile: immediate benefits now, costs later. The debt tracks what is owed, and borrowing allows action today at the expense of tomorrow.

The problem isn’t borrowing itself, it’s the lack of rules to control it. Being careful is rarely rewarded; overspending rarely punished. Current rules make borrowing feel safe and waiting feel risky, even as the scoreboard climbs.

Change the rules, and the game changes. Leave them as they are, and the scoreboard will keep climbing.