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Reader question: In the following passage, what does “pickle” mean exactly? The US has about $2.3tn of money coming in, and it spends about $3.6tn. So imagine you were making $23,000 a year and spending $36,000. What would happen? You’d be in debt, and you’d have to cut your spending. The US is in the same pickle. Except, instead of a few thousand, it has to cut $1.3tn. My comments: Here pickle means great difficulty. If you are paid $23,000 a year and you spend $36,000 annually, and you do this year after year after year after year, you’ll be in the same financial predicament that the United States government finds itself in. Well, that’s just a comparison. And, frankly speaking, I think they’ve picked a poor example. If you really run a personal debt like that, your problem will be much bigger than whatever fiscal cliff the American government has to face. Because, you see, your debt is real. America’s government debt, on the other hand, belongs to the American people – it’s the American public who will, eventually, have to pay it off, via tax increases, inflation, one way or another. And so, in theory, if the government wants to keep spending irresponsibly and just don’t care, they can – nobody can stop them doing so. Which is, in fact, how they put themselves in the current situation in the first place. By sheer number, though, this is true: The United States is in much much much greater debt than you’ll ever find yourself in – currently $1.3tn that is. | 
