Many people are wondering, with the enormous scale of US national debt, will it really need to be repaid in the future?

There's an interesting saying — if you borrow money based on your ability, why must you pay it back? It sounds like a joke, but for government finances, it indeed reflects a certain reality.

The logic isn't complicated. Government debt is usually denominated in the country's own currency, and the value of that currency ultimately depends on the country's creditworthiness. As long as the ability to print money remains, new debt can roll over old debt, and there is no true "default" in the real sense. If one day the credit collapses completely, the debt problem naturally disappears — but the price is currency devaluation and an economic crisis.

The real risk lies here: what if the debt is in foreign currency? That's not so simple. You can't print foreign currencies out of thin air, so many countries try to make their currency an international reserve currency, aiming to gain the privilege of borrowing in their own currency without fear of default. This also explains why the status of reserve currency is so crucial for major powers.