<i>For the government debt it isn&#x27;t a huge issue because the Government can essentially decide not to pay itself back. But for public debt it means that the economy is held back.</i><p>&quot;Public debt&quot; is another name for &quot;Government debt&quot;[0].  From the rest of your description, you means &quot;debt owed by the non-government public&quot;, private debt, or &quot;household debt&quot; (which doesn&#x27;t strictly include corporate debt like your example outlines).<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Government_debt" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Government_debt</a>