Thursday, February 2, 2012

34 Shocking Facts About the US Debt

The author of this article has a very strong opinion about the US Debt. They feel that we have all been lied to and that with this upcoming election its going to continue to happen. He feels that the debt was fixable 30 years ago but not enough was done and now it is 15 times worse. You can tell his opinion is annoyed about how the debt has been handled because he goes on to say "We were the wealthiest nation on earth, but it wasn’t good enough just to squander all of our own money.  We had to squander the money of our children and our grandchildren as well." 


Just to give you a couple of the shocking facts:



#13 The United States government is responsible for more than a third of all the government debt in the entire world.
#14 If you divide up the national debt equally among all U.S. taxpayers, each taxpayer would owe approximately $134,685.
#16 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S. national debt soared by 61%during that same time period.

#32 According to Professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, the U.S. is facing a “fiscal gap” of over 200 trillion dollars in the future. 


You can find the other 30 shocking facts here. 
What do you think about these facts, did any of them seem shocking or believable to you?
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4 comments:

  1. Grant BaranowskiFebruary 2, 2012 at 1:28 PM

    I'm really interested in #5 and #20. I can't say I thought hard enough about our national debt to realize that we have to pay interest on the national debt, let alone 454 billion dollars worth of interest in 2011. Similarly, I find it unbelievable that the government is actually giving the U.S. household more money than they are paying in taxes... that just seems wrong.

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  2. @SamuelA.February 2, 2012 at 8:59 PM

    yeah

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    1. @SamuelA.February 2, 2012 at 9:18 PM

      borrowing money is embedded in the characteristics of the US government that it would be almost impossible to stop now. Could you imagine US trying to work with strictly the money available in hand?

      If the government is spending money on health care, national army, and other important sectors, maybe it's a good investment.

      I don't think one should start attacking the government for the amount of debt unless we all agree not to continue this method of government financing.

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 3, 2012 at 2:50 PM

    I agree with Grant that #5 was the US paid 454 billion in interest alone. The one about wrapping $10 bills around the world 380 times and having it still not add up the the current debt also was an interesting visual. All very shocking

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