12 year old explains national debt

In this video, 12-year old Victoria Grant explains why her homeland, Canada, and most of the world, is in debt.

(via explore)

4 Comments leave a comment below

  1. Rather good points. Pretty canned speech. But not bad for a 12yr old talking about federal level economics. Thanks for sharing.

    Here’s another example of kids talking about big financial issues:

    A 10-Year-Old Boy’s Solution To The Euro Crisis, In 1 Picture
    http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/04/03/149904853/a-10-year-old-boys-solution-to-the-euro-crisis-in-1-picture

  2. and here’s a link to an interview with a guy who wrote a whole book about debt. great read btw!

    http://libcom.org/library/debt-first-5000-years-interview-david-graeber

  3. She does it well but her way out doesn’t make any sense.
    Printing (a lot) more money means (a lot) more inflation, imports become more costly and lending on the international market more expensive, forcing one to cut budget overruns so as not to have to lend. But if you did that to start with, you’d have the upside of that without the downsides of inflation.
    Unfortunately, there is no free lunch, which is not to say we could tax banks more on the profits they make…

  4. dunno if we’re getting to heavy for Tina’s original intent of the post, but…

    @Laurens – yeah. Gain some “here”, but pay for it “there”. Yep, no free lunch.

    I heard some interviews by Spencer Wells who authored the book “Pandora’s Seed” which basically goes through the cost of “modern civilization”. His basic advice: Want Less.
    This may sound depressing, but actually I can kinda see how it’s liberating or at least intriguing that perhaps, we need to stop “sprinting all the time and find a more sustainable rhythm …otherwise humanity is going to fracture or break a bone…”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/10/jon-stewart-author-interv_n_607588.html