Originally Posted By: tanstaafl.
Why would the average family care what the GDP is when, in the end, their grandchildren will be footing the $80,000+ bill that is their share of the debt?

Because the GDP is a measure of the productivity of the national economy, from which their wages are ultimately paid, and it's what reassures them that a debt of just $80,000 per family, with an essentially unlimited time to pay it off through taxation, is nothing to lose sleep over.

Peter