system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: It has been said that America's debt to other countries has its pros and cons. Obviously it's bad because we owe over $18 trillion, but why could this debt benefit them?
gpt
>America's debt to other countries has its pros and cons. Obviously it's bad because we owe over $18 trillion

That's not correct. While the federal debt is at 18 trillion, we do not owe 18 trillion to foreign countries. The vast, vast majority of the debt is held internally, by the American government or American investors.

I'll go into the negatives of the debt. Sovereign debt does not quite work like personal debt. Not at all.

First, we do not ask other countries for their money. *They* choose to buy treasury bonds, because they believe in the strength of the dollar.

Second, owning debt does not give any power over the U.S. Treasury bonds give set amounts of interests at set times. The owner of the debt cannot request their money back. It will be payed out in the time set when they bought it, and that's that. 

Third, the United States does not have to pay back its debt in its entirety. Only the interest. And we do a fucking good job of that, having never officially missed a payment. As long as our GDP grows at a similar rate to our debt, the actual number may as well be irrelevent.

You can get into more about how important the debt is, how it backs the dollar, etc. 

But it's very important, and in fact, if we were to have the entire debt payed off, it would be rather catastrophic for our and the world economy.