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>We would have a budget surplus if we actually made Social Security/other Gov. retirement program replacement actually sustain itself perpetually. What. A. Concept.

Why is running a budget surplus necessarily a "good thing"?

Seems like if people are willing to trade real assets for paper, we should do that as long as there are willing counterparties.

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> Seems like if people are willing to trade real assets for paper, we should do that as long as there are willing counterparties.

That's why it's a good thing. Because we don't want to run out of "as long as."

Always running a surplus is presumably as bad a thing as always running a deficit, but if you can run a surplus On sunny days, then you don't need austerity measures on rainy days

Austerity measures are exactly the wrong strategy for "rainy days", no matter what your debts look like. See how the US bounced back fairly quickly from the 2008 crisis after the stimulus, while countries like the UK are still tightening their belts, because the cuts they've made to date have not had the desired effect.

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