>>I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. I have never been in debt in my entire life... worked my way through school tending bar etc etc...

I was talking about inflation and the reality that the US and its citizens have substantial debt that can be assisted by a dose of inflation. Instead, more and more people are meeting your definition of "responsibility" by saving rather than spending, which as others have observed is leading to economic stagnation, slow job growth, property deflation and all that other good stuff. A cynic might claim that austerity is another of those behaviors that benefits me as long as everybody else doesn't start doing it too.

To give an example you can relate to yourself: bars and restaurants rely on punters being willing to go out and spend rather than staying at home and saving, and you relied on that to make your way. QED. No woman is an island. FWIW, while traveling in the Midwest recently I saw 3 darkened mainstreet premises where there used to be restaurants: how many young Marcias are in debt or giving up school because the community is being "responsible"?

>>This statement is truy ignorant. If I have an advantage, it is because I lived my life responsibly. I fail to understand why I owe anything to anyone who hasn't.

You can't expect to toss around insults if you won't address the point, which is that few if any Americans of your generation contributed enough to pay for their own Medicare expectations, which requires DEBT attributable to- whom exactly? Everybody else, it would seem. At the moment the "irresponsible" young are going along with borrowing to cover this, but if those who expect others to pay for their care also scold about borrowing to fund it, perhaps that will start to wear thin fairly quickly.

Of course there are risks and objections to inflation. But it does reduce the impact of debt, especially compared to austerity and the stagnation it brings. You do realize that your property values are at risk if nobody is willing to shoulder the borrowing risk that made current values possible in the first place?