2025, the world has entered an unprecedented era of debt. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the total government debt of countries worldwide has surpassed 91 trillion dollars, equivalent to 93% of global GDP. Triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, countries implemented massive economic stimulus policies and welfare expenditures, the effects of which continue to this day.
The United States’ national debt exceeds 34 trillion dollars, sparking repeated default debates in Congress. Japan maintains the world’s highest national debt ratio at 260% of GDP while unable to abandon its ultra-low interest rate policy. Similar situations prevail in major countries such as the European Union, the UK, China, Brazil, and Canada. The key question is whose burden this debt will ultimately become.
Debt is not merely a number; it is a quiet promise for the future and a deferred political choice. Governments opt to spend to secure present support, leaving the burden to the next generation. In aging societies, welfare spending inevitably increases. Expenses like healthcare, pensions, and caregiving expand annually, mainly financed through government bond issuance.
With strong resistance to tax increases, raising taxes is not a practical option, so governments sustain current spending by promising to repay later. The result is clear: interest costs grow exponentially. In the U.S., interest payments on national debt have begun to exceed defense budgets.
This situation demands structural transformation. Whereas state finances were traditionally managed around ‘growth and distribution,’ now they are restructured into ‘defense and deferral.’ Future investments in education, infrastructure, birth promotion, and regional development decline, while consumption spending to ensure survival and public stability takes precedence. The problem is that this approach is unsustainable.
In the short term, it may win votes, but in the long term, it weakens social productivity, damages fiscal soundness, and lowers international credibility. Currency depreciation, rising interest rates, and credit rating downgrades will have widespread effects.
Moreover, financial markets closely monitor this debt situation. The yields on government bonds demand increasing risk premiums, and investors analyze not only debtors’ repayment capacity but also political stability, tax structures, and demographic composition.
Rising interest rates increase burdens on businesses and households, leading to reduced consumption and slower growth. Without breaking this vicious cycle, national debt could escalate from a mere accounting issue to a systemic crisis.
Many nations’ next generations are born into debt. States pass on debt equality instead of equal opportunities, and this structure continues regardless of political terms. Youth bear burdens in housing, employment, education, and childbirth, also inheriting consequences of financial systems they did not choose.
In societies where intergenerational justice does not function, youth disengagement accelerates. When social solidarity collapses through debt structures, trust is not easily restored.
Debt is not a phenomenon but a structure.
National debt ultimately reveals which priorities a society holds. As long as future sacrifices are made to avoid immediate shocks, this crisis will repeat and accumulate. Debt is not just money owed but the sum of unresolved decisions and deferred responsibilities. What we borrow now is not merely funds but the next generation’s opportunities and life-course leeway. At some point, states began treating the future as a cost, and the bill is now slowly arriving.
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Daily Scripture Journal
