To be clear, a default would be far more painful than the austerity required to stabilize the debt.)

Hard disagree. The debt is already unpayable, and austerity cuts the kind of investment that creates economic activity, like schools and infrastructure. And our schools and bridges are already collapsing

And it's not just national debt that has become unpayable... We have levels of debt that can't be repaid at all levels. It's a big part of why everything is becoming unaffordable

This is part of the collapse of an empire. It's happened before. There's three ways out of it. The first is a jubilee, a one time general forgiveness of all debt (unlikely). The second is a revolution and reorganization where we don't acknowledge prior debt

The most likely path forward is hyperinflation, where the majority of debt is shrunk by devaluation of the currency

No amount of austerity will get us out of this hole... The purpose of austerity is to extract wealth through opening outside investment and suppressing economic development. It's purpose is to keep countries on a debt treadmill indefinitely