thetrumpet.com | Greece announced on June 2 that it would begin selling off virtually all publicly-owned assets to shrink its budget deficit. In the midst of an economic crisis, the government couldn’t have chosen a worse time to sell—but there is little choice. If Greece wants the bailout money, sell it must.

But here is what is most scary.

According to the New York Times, even after Greece sells 49 percent of the state railroad, lists its ports and airports on the stock market, privatizes the country’s casinos, sells minority stakes in water utilities serving Athens and Thessaloniki, sells 39 percent of the post office, and combines its vast real-estate assets into a holding company to be listed on the stock market—the government still won’t come close to balancing its budget.

If things don’t dramatically improve soon, expect another garage sale to shortly follow, and then what little is left of the family silverware will be gone.

Imagine: Selling everything and still not being able to pay the bills.

That is the danger of debt: It lets you buy things, even at overpriced values, allowing you to live beyond your means—for a time. On the surface, the difference between debt and real prosperity can be virtually impossible to distinguish. Your neighbor who lives in the big mansion down the street and drives a Porsche: Is that wealth or a $700,000 adjustable-rate mortgage and a loaner? Until the bills come due, or a job is lost, it can be hard to tell.

But one thing stays constant—the debt payments. And if for any reason you can’t pay, the creditors take everything.

It is a lesson that America should learn. America’s deficit to gdp ratio is now even higher than that of Greece. And America’s national debt is almost as large as the whole economy.

America is looking more like Greece each and every day. The biggest garage sale in history is fast approaching, and because Americans don’t have any money, it will be foreigners who end up owning everything.