May 6, 2010 2:06PM 

# How the Debt Crisis Will Stop 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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The economist Herb Stein famously [said](http://www.slate.com/id/2561), “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” That’s a good riposte when people wring their hands over something unsustainable. Of course, that fact doesn’t tell you *how* unsustainable situations will stop, and some ways are less pleasant than others.

I thought of “Stein’s Law” when I read former California Assembly speaker [Willie Brown’s response](http://cbs13.com/onthemoney/on.the.money.2.1675007.html) to a question about whether California’s lavish public-employee pensions would bankrupt the state:

> No, it’s not going to bankrupt the state. My guess is that the State of California, like most places involved with pensions, is going to cease to pay them.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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