Well some of the debt is paid by the people of the United States, so if the US didn't pay it, those people would be out of money...but the part that sucks for them is that some of the debt is being paid by other countries and if they can't pay those countries, well, those countries are going to want their money back (China).
It's basically like the US has a credit card but instead of keeping to the limit, they decided since they are the most important thing in the world and they will borrow beyond the limit and leave the problem to future generations to pay off when everyone wants their money back.
If everyone rushed to a bank to take out their money all at once, the bank wouldn't have the money to give those people, would be forced to go bankrupt, and whoever didn't get their fast enough would have lost their money. If everyone tries to collect their money from the US all at once, the US won't have the money and they will go bankrupt and everyone will lose.
That's how I understand it anyways. I wasn't paying attention all the time back in high school but I think that's right.
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