>That statement is far more reasonable than 'It's literally impossible for Japan to default on their debts', which is false.
This is slightly pedantic. The argument was about whether incurring ever-greater amounts of debt would result in the default of Japan, a country with a sovereign currency. It's a fallacy that is often repeated. As long as the debts are denominated in said currency, the answer is: no. A country with its own currency will always be able print more money to fulfill these obligations, making default practically (not literally, I guess) impossible.
The fact that they can choose to default, or that we may run out of trees, or ink, or whatever, is a bit outside of the scope of the argument.
This is slightly pedantic. The argument was about whether incurring ever-greater amounts of debt would result in the default of Japan, a country with a sovereign currency. It's a fallacy that is often repeated. As long as the debts are denominated in said currency, the answer is: no. A country with its own currency will always be able print more money to fulfill these obligations, making default practically (not literally, I guess) impossible.
The fact that they can choose to default, or that we may run out of trees, or ink, or whatever, is a bit outside of the scope of the argument.