system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What would happen if we paid off our debt?

What would happen to the United States economy if a large percentage of individual Americans made an asserted effort pay off their debts (Homes, Credit Cards, Student Loans, Cars, ect) in the next 5 years? How would it effect our economy in a whole over short period of time (5-10 years) and how would it effect over a long period of time (20-50 years) Would it be wise for a politician to ask his/her constituents to pay their debt to help the economy?
gpt
Money spent paying down debt is money not spent on consumption. If everybody redirected their income from consumption to debt repayment, it would probably spark another recession in the short run. In the long run, total interest payments would be lower due to the reduced debt burden and so the money that would have been spent on that could be redirected to consumption and in the long run there could be a boost but the positive impact of this would depend on the severity of previous recession (i.e. if it caused a very horrible recession, it's unlikely that the positives would outweigh the negatives).