Over the past two decades, debt of all kinds has increased exponentially, making it almost impossible to pay off in full. However, through a tactic known as monetary inflation, it becomes possible to pay off these insurmountable debts by dramatically increasing the amount of money put into circulation. In this article, I will first discuss the causes of the escalating debt crisis and how some individuals believe inflation could be a solution, then I will interpret Americans' fears about inflation . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Finally, I will explain how inflation is not a viable solution to solving the debt crisis. Currency inflation should not be used to pay down debt, as it would lead to the economic consequences of currency devaluation and skyrocketing prices. Currently, the United States national debt exceeds 100% of gross domestic product (Thornton, 2012). The debt now stands at a staggering $21 trillion, which, given the current economic situation, is virtually impossible to repay. Divided equally among more than 300 million U.S. citizens, every person living in America would have to pay $63,000 to pay off the debt. But how can the richest country on the planet find itself faced with a debt crisis of this magnitude? The problem is mainly that the government spends too much and taxes little (Thornton, 2012). The government taxes its citizens and then uses that money to provide services such as benefits like social security, defense, and other miscellaneous projects. However, when the government decides to spend more than it gets in taxes, a deficit arises. Now add astronomical spending on entitlements to huge defense spending combined with numerous tax cuts over the past 37 years and you get a national debt of 21 trillion (Thornton, 2012). National debts are nothing new and have plagued countries and empires ever since. the beginning of modern times. The two main ways to pay off debt are either taxation or inflation. Inflation is simply a government increasing its money supply and according to economist J. H Cochrane, inflation generally follows economic difficulties. However, inflation devalues ​​a country's currency, which can lead to a dollar being worth only a fraction of what it was previously worth. This makes paying debts easier, because paying with money worth half of what it was is essentially paying off only half of the debt (Cochrane, 2011). If you have $1,000 in debt, printing money to pay it off is easier than raising the $1,000. This inflationary approach was adopted by Germany after World War II to pay off its $800 billion debt (Hetzel, 2002). Germany's central bank, the Reichsbank, began printing extraordinary sums to repay war reparations. In the short term, this seemed like an effective strategy, but as inflation rose, inflation's flaws quickly began to reveal themselves. The main problem with inflation is that it devalues ​​the currency. The more money you print, the less that currency is worth overall. Thus, as the value of currency decreases, the prices of items increase to compensate for the loss of monetary value (Cochrane, 2011). Due to hyperinflation.