Until we can't afford it anymore, which is now. Our economy is sick because of this. You want to know why the job market is so lousy? US manufacturing has been hollowed out. If we produced an equal amount of goods as we consumed it would create millions of jobs.
How does the US get the money for free? If that's really how it works, then why don't we just walk away every time so we always get the money free instead of having to borrow.
I'm didn't say we should walk away, I said it if was ever an unreasonable loan payment the U.S wouldn't. The U.S would have Chinese by the balls just as much as Chinese have the U.S. Some say that loans help provide luxuries it couldn't afford otherwise. It's not suggesting it's a doomed spiral, it's we can live with...It's not a bad thing to have debt...China holds in comparison a small percentage of U.S annual GDP.
When we put sanctions on Russia and U.S companies can't buy a Russian product for some reason, it hurts U.S companies because now they have to go to a more expensive competitor. (which adds up to $$) Politically it looks like we are doing something, but it hurts everyone.
When China takes all the manufacturing jobs that used to be in the US, it hurts us. Countries can become wealthier and poorer relative to one and other via wealth transfer/wealth creation/wealth destruction. Money that we send to China for products is money that we can't use for something else here. All countries are in competition with each other for money and jobs. We can definitely come out on the losing end pursuing the policies we are now.
China is a ticking time bomb that is aware of its need for long term service oriented jobs. It knows that if it's undercut by India or Brazil it will lose everything. To get to number 1 the country has put off several EPA costs that U.S companies wouldn't go through and will bite China in the A with health costs and such. It's not a game where one country gets to become the golden king of the flag of manufacturing and everyone loses cause they set price, the jobs will optimize and go to the most efficient markets. People will not buy from China if it no longer is the cheapest. U.S realizes it costs too much to be manufacture oriented, it's better in other areas. If it would stick its foot in the ground and say we're going to be manufacturing again, it would surely lose, it's not efficient. U.S is a very rich country, it was recently gutted because of a 1999 repeal of an act put in place after the U.S depression. It allowed banks to mix stock portfolios with mortgages. Then subprime mortgages happened. Already people had inflated housing market because stock portfolios were mixed in and everything people owned was considered and could be lost to the bank, then subprime came in. If person A buys a house for 100k and person B buys for 100k then demand will raise and person C will get to buy the house next to them for 110k. Everything got cooked under a bubble and it finally popped causing alot of people to lose money some never really had. Not just people lost, several banks closed and people lost their jobs to poor loans. The U.S did poor financially because of bad finance reasons, not because it should try to return to being a country where it can optimize and manufacture dildos a few cents cheaper than China.