Perspective on National Debt

The wife and I were talking about the “government shutdown” and she said she needed a visual reference to make the connections.

Certainly, It is not easy for hourly individuals that deal in tens and hundreds to visualize spending billions and trillions.

Consequently,  so I quickly did some math to break it down and give some perspective on National Debt

Here is our problem:

$113,000,000,000,000 Unfunded Liabilities
$14,000,000,000,000 National Debt

That is:

$1,000,000 Unfunded Liabilities per Taxpayer
$128,000 National Debt per Taxpayer

Our government has to pay that with:

$2,000,000,000,000 Annual Tax Revenue

Loans cost money, so we pay:

$3,500,000,000,000 Annually on Interest

Which is $1,500,000,000,000 more than our Countries annual tax receipts, so we have to borrow that each year to pay interest (Which increases our debt, which increases our interest, which increases how much we have to borrow to pay interest)

Even Dropping off 6 Zeros Still show as heck of a problem.

$113,000,000 Unfunded Liabilities
$14,000,000 National Debt

That is:

$1 Unfunded Liabilities per Taxpayer
0.19 National Debt per Taxpayer

Our government has to pay that with:

$2,000,000 Annual Tax Revenue

Loans cost money, so we pay:

$3,500,000 Annually on Interest

Which is $1,500,000 more than our Countries annual tax receipts, so we have to borrow that each year to pay interest (Which increases our debt, which increases our interest, which increases how much we have to borrow to pay interest)

For Perspective

If a two income family brought home $80,000 a year, and the Government took the entire amount, it would take 25 Million families to equal the total amount of tax revenues that the US Federal Government receives in taxes….

However, it would take 42 Million, 750 thousand such $80,000 Families taxed at 100% just to pay the interest on the 14 trillion dollar debt.

It would take 175 Million Families with an income of $80,000,000 to pay off the debt, (or 350 million individuals with a $40,000 dollar a year income. That is 50 million more individuals than the total US population.)

A families share of those mandates is 1 billion, 412 million, and 500 thousand dollars with a $80,000 a year income as a family.  If you made $80,000 a year, and owed over 1,412,500,000 and had to borrow money just to pay the interest, what kind of promises would you have to make to get someone to give you more money?

Add in Unfunded Mandates

Say you think its unfair to add in unfunded mandates (say you don’t want to pay for Granny’s medicare, or Mom’s social insecurity)  We can just look at the national debt.

Similarly, for a family with an $80,000 a year income you would have to owe 175 Million dollars to owe the same ratio as what the US Federal Government owes in relationship to its income…

Finally, the Fed says the combined housing market value is 10 Trillion, since we owe 14 Trillion in National Dept and another 100 Trillion in unfunded mandates, it seems like I am not the only one upside down on my mortgage.  The difference is, I like what I spent my money on, and no one forced me to take out my mortgage.

I DO NOT like what my tax dollars are being spent on, and I have long begged them to stop mortgaging my future.

The music is about to stop on our Countries game of hot potato, and those in Washington still refuse to stop playing games…

Note:

This is a low estimate, as the numbers keep growing as Congress keeps spends, and the President keeps starting wars….

Source US Census, and the US National Debt Clock