Are Americans Stupid or Self-destructive?

This whole "debt-ceiling debate" is rather disgusting to me as very few actually talk about reality…

People seem extremely fond of analogizing the US economy with a household's budget, or running a business. That analogy is non-sensical for many reasons, as outlined in this nice little article: The Federal Budget is NOT like a Household Budget: Here’s Why.

But just for fun, let's look at the US economic situation through that analogy, let's look at the US as a business.

Suppose you, along with your brother, inherit a piece of land with a small building on it that has a stove, a sink and a refrigerator inside. And you and your brother agree to open a burger stand. You have very little money so you suggest getting a loan, and manage to convince your brother to go along. So the business takes out a 5 year loan for $1000 and you and your brother buy some meat and potatoes and start selling burgers and fries.

The burgers are good and people start buying them. Your place is very small so you can only seat one person at a time and therefor sell a lot less burgers than you could, as you see people walk on by when they see there is no room in your stand.

Now, for some reason your brother is very upset about the debt the business has incurred. He insists that you spend all the cash the business has, barely $1000, to pay off the debt. You urge that the business take another loan and expand one wall so that there can be more seats.

You explain to your brother that if you pay of the debt with your cash that would basically put you both out of business, since you could not then buy supplies. You explain that not using the loan would be foolish, would create wasted capacity. You insist that the way forward is to expand and sell more burgers and make more profit.

Your brother is a hard core conservative though and continues to argue that the business should stop expending money on expenses like buying supplies or electricity, and that the only way to save the business is to pay down the debt now.

So you offer a compromise that you buy less supplies and less electricity. Of course, you can only open for an hour a day and sell very few hamburgers, and the business now barely makes a profit and you worry that it may not even be possible to pay off the loan as the business continues to shrink ...