The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio sits at 120%, but after World War II it was even higher. America didn't pay down the debt directly. Instead, rapid industrialization and GDP growth shrank the ratio to 40%. The argument: reindustrialize now and grow our way out again.
The only way out of this situation that we're in, which is high debt-to-GDP ratios, US is about 120% debt-to-GDP. The debt doesn't get paid off. After World War II, this is what the US did. They didn't pay off the debt. They brought GDP up to get it back to about 40%. They grew their way out of it through industrialization. That's the plan. We have to reindustrialize and we grow our way out. The debt doesn't get paid. It stays at 40%, but we grow so fast that it becomes a much smaller percentage of the debt-to-GDP ratio.
