Understanding Americas debt

[Rich Hupper]

Can someone explain to me what exactly would happen if America defaults on its debt?

If America has never defaulted in the past can you give me an example of another country that has defaulted and what happened to them afterwards.

Who owns the debt?

What happens to the average middleclass worker? Not able to withdraw money from the bank? 401k losses value?

I wish this stuff was taught in school so people could understand it better and make better choices in who represents them.

[Rich Hupper]

I am in debt with mostly good debt, a little bit of credit card debt. If I miss one payment I would lose my 800 fico score.  I am assuming something similar would happen to Americas credit rating? 

If we miss a payment do these other countries penalize us in someway? Because so few people care about this debt it appears that there is no real penalty for a default?

Is there a relationship between debt and the fiat? 

If everyone was educated in this I think people would make drastically different decisions in almost all aspects of life. 

All I know is that as a real estate investor there is good and bad debt, and debt that debt that continues to grow like the US debt clock shows cannot be a good thing. This is like a reverse mortgage on steriods.