The National Debt and You

10/5/22.

This very day the national debt hit $31 trillion, comparable to credit card debt as there is no equity involved. Many discount this as insignificant, but is it? The total income to the government is about $4 trillion annually. This means the government owes almost 8 times its income. Forget the $4T is almost totally encumbered, i.e. spent.

Let's now measure this debt in comparison to your debt. Suppose you make free and clear $100,000 annually. Suppose you owe in credit card debt 8 times this amount. Your debt would be $800,000. (Your house and car, as equity, don't figure in.) Most people would consider a revolving credit card debt of $10,000 as huge to the max.

Now you have a personal idea of how much the government owes.

It also tells us why the Fed doesn't want to increase interest rates to curb inflation. An increase of just 2% in the prime rate requires the government to pay more than $600 billion in additional interest - each freaking year! Translated this implies well more than $1000 per year for each taxpayer.

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