Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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In 1981, during Ronald Reagan's first term, a tax cut pushed the national debt over $1 trillion. There was hand-wringing about how this would shackle our children to economic misery. The federal debt is now 34 times that Reagan level ("Fix U.S. budget for short, long term," editorial, Jan. 12). We are now a whole generation removed and supposed to be suffering because of that $1 trillion debt from 40 years ago. Why aren't we? What should we expect of this broken record narrative for the next generation?

The biggest myth is how so many equate deficits to excessive household debt. Very bad analogy. As long as a government has the ability to insert (i.e., spend) its own fiat currency into the economy and redeem debt with that same currency, it can never go broke. All of those federal debt dollars are accelerating around our economy doing all kinds of good stuff. The economy grows and that debt has little effect. Recent recessions are all from external causes like oil shocks, housing market meltdowns, COVID supply-chain collapses, etc. Inflation has always been cost-push (sudden external shortages) not demand-pull (too much money chasing too few goods) from deficits.

There is a school of economics that espouses "Modern Monetary Theory" — the concept that deficit spending is to be encouraged and can do a lot of good if directed well and judiciously applied. I am only an amateur student of this and don't pretend to understand all the intricacies of modern macroeconomics, but it seems we've been doing something akin to what the modern monetary folks have been advocating for quite a while without catastrophe.

The national economy is so huge and complex that no group of economists has it right. But if we could stop wrongly equating the national debt to a private credit card and dump this deficit myth, we can perhaps look at ways the federal government can help the most people with a wise application of its bountiful currency supply.

Dennis Fazio, Minneapolis

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A recent letter writer cited the need for the general public to wake up and demand action be taken to reduce the federal debt. I offer a calculation that really brings home just how big 34 trillion (our national debt in dollars) really is.

One trillion seconds equals 31,688 years. 34 trillion seconds equals 1,077,392 years. Let that sink in — it is truly a number that is difficult to fathom. All of us need to get the attention of our government officials and demand they get on top of this staggering $34 trillion debt by enacting a combination of additional revenue increases and spending cuts before it's (if it's not already) too late.

Richard Trickel, Crosslake

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

They expect what all should get

I take exception to the online headline "Local governments struggle to pay for the generous benefits public workers have come to expect" (StarTribune.com, Jan. 18). The characterization of receiving a livable wage and reasonable retirement as "generous" is absurd. It is the bare minimum that any worker should expect. The question isn't why public employees get these basics, but rather why private ones don't. The United States is alone among industrialized nations in the way it denies workers basic protection and benefits. Private sector workers ought to be angry — not at public employees but at their bosses and the corporate executives that take their labor without just compensation and protections.

Eddie Holmvig Johnson, Richfield

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

Don't be so blasé about the border

While commenting on former President Donald Trump's decisive triumph in the Iowa caucuses and the challenge to our country's very democracy because of it ("Trump — and his lies — triumph in Iowa," Jan. 17), the Star Tribune Editorial Board mentions that "surely [President Joe] Biden's failure to secure the border jeopardizes the country" in a very matter-of-fact way that trivializes the fact that our current president is failing one of the very core functions of the presidency. Please consider that fact when you endorse Biden in the upcoming 2024 election.

Tom Anderson, Coon Rapids

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What Iowans actually voted for on Monday:

1. A return to a country we can have pride in.
2. Fair-trade agreements that bring jobs back to the U.S.
3. A return to peace and ending the two wars that the current administration helped start and wants to continue.
4. Enforcement of immigration laws currently on the books.
5. A return to the democratic republic we were founded as and away from the socialist country we have become.
6. A return to a president who is not compromised and subservient to our biggest rivals (China, Russia and Iran).
7. A return to leading the world forward, not being the laughingstock that we currently are.

Bob Tumilson, Apple Valley

CLEAN WATER

Everyone's, and no one's, job

Thursday morning's "Clean drinking water promised in SE. Minn." almost perfectly captures what's wrong in this state: No one is in charge of drinking water. No one. The agencies among which the water portfolio is distributed produced nation-leading data, and there is a Clean Water Council made from all of them. But no one is in charge.

That's why state Rep. Rick Hansen called the situation "embarrassing." We should do something about this at the next legislative opportunity.

Curt Johnson, Edina

GETTING AROUND

Cleanest energy there is: You

The state of Minnesota is offering rebates for the purchase of e-bikes in 2024 ("E-bike assist available from the state," Jan. 14). Let me get this straight. E-bikes normally are purchased to replace or supplement regular bikes — bikes powered by the clean energy of human muscles. Now the state will pay for batteries relying on lithium, the mining of which contributes to our present climate crisis. So now we spend tax dollars to supplement the climate crisis with bikes that require less exercise and keep us less fit. Good use of taxpayer money?

Charles Bobertz, Chanhassen

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Metro Transit is going to spend $3.5 million to renovate the Lake Street light-rail station ("Troubled Lake Street station to get overhaul," Jan. 7). Officials are not going to make it an enclosed station that requires riders to buy a ticket to get on the train. The poor conditions at the station tell you that this is an entry point for many of the drug abusers and criminals who make life on the trains so unpleasant for normal riders. Their solution is to use less glass because it is breakable. God forbid that they limit free access to the train. How stupid is this? Eventually, they will have to bow to the inevitable and create an enclosed system and redo all of the stations so this money will just be wasted. In any case, the station will be trashed in several years anyway, because the same people will be coming to trash it. Your tax dollars at work.

William Schletzer, Plymouth

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It's a good idea to have uniformed people checking fares on Metro Transit ("Free rides over for transit fare jumpers," Jan. 14). But maybe we need a boost in usage, too. Look at Houston: After age 70, you can get a free fare pass forever!

Betty Beier, Edina