They should pay off the debt, then think about the boat if they still have the job. The future is unpredictable. Because of the unpredictability of the future, the federal government should prepare now for the retirement of the baby boomers when there will be only two workers per retiree. This means cutting spending and paying off the debt as quickly as possible. Cutting spending and paying off debt will benefit our children and grandchildren by making it easier to cope, in case something happens to make life tough for them.
Nature can do worse than it has done in our memory.
A depression that we didn t think could happen again. An epidemic that moves too fast to be stopped by counter measures. Those little beasties are becoming more and more resistant to our medicine. A large jump in interest rates before the debt gets paid down. For a time in the 1980 s interest rates were three times what they are now.