They're comparing GDP which is $/year, with debt, which is $. You can't compare different units like that.
> They're comparing GDP which is $/year, with debt, which is $. You can't compare different units like that.
Hopefully it's obvious to everyone else here that they're comparing the debt with the GDP of a year.
"The Congressional Budget Office regularly updates its long-term budget forecasts and says that U.S. debt held by the public will surpass gross domestic product this fiscal year and that interest on that debt will equal about three-quarters of discretionary, nondefense spending. "
The way I would explain it to webdevs on this website is: the >= has been defined for these two types.
If instead they had written "debt interest will equal three-quarters of etc.." then you'd be 100% correct. As it is, the above poster is correct that a) debt and gdp have different units, b) the word surpass implies a comparison. All I'm adding is that there's an implied conversion: it's obvious that they mean the gdp of a year.
Similarly power-to-mass ratio is not dimensionless, but it is useful to know the possible acceleration.
Think of Debt-to-GDP > 1 year as "credit card debt exceeds annual salary".
Yes, credit card debt is $, and salary is $/year, and exceeding 1 is not a particular tipping point, but lower values are better than higher.