海角大神

I have agreed to write a reference book on the U.S. national debt over the next year.聽 It is a book that would be found in the collections of public community libraries and the libraries of high schools and colleges鈥搃ntended to be used by ordinary concerned citizens, high school AP government students, and college students in political science and economics courses.聽 For the students it would likely be a supplement to their main textbook, particularly useful in courses where the teacher wants to get into greater depth about the debt and deficits issue or where students are writing term papers on the topic.聽 I was motivated to agree to take this project on because I think there are big holes in the literature right now:聽 while there are some books on the debt that are written from a particular point of view with particular policy recommendations, there seem preciously few books that survey all different points of view and explain the big (economic and philosophical) tradeoffs in choosing among all the different policy options.聽 I also think (based on my reading of my own kids鈥� textbooks) that AP government textbooks don鈥檛 adequately explain what the federal debt is and why the students should care about it, which really troubles me given that they are the ones that will have to deal with it.

But I haven鈥檛 yet poured through the various text and reference books that talk about the national debt out there (but I will鈥搕his is a big summer project), so I was hoping you readers could first participate in this informal survey:聽 How did you first learn about the national debt in school鈥搃n high school or college鈥揳nd what did you learn about it?聽 Did you learn about it as a simply mechanical and abstract thing that didn鈥檛 really pertain to you and your life, or were you made aware of how it might affect you more personally鈥揺ven if largely through effects on the economy as a whole?聽 If you are someone who first learned about it as a grownup and by reading the news or books or websites on your own, do you feel you learned about it well, and easily?聽 What was the first lesson you 鈥済ot鈥濃�揳s in, were told and understood鈥揳bout why you should personally care about the debt?