As a U.S. citizen, you owe over $36,000. I don’t care how old you are, how much money you make, or how deeply in debt you are, your share of the national debt comes to approximately $36,666.
How’d I figure that? Well, last I checked, according to the U.S. National Debt Clock, the national debt is currently about $10 trillion ($9,734,169,505,691.88). Add another trillion or so for the current bank bailouts, and we’re up to about $11 trillion. I won’t even count all the interest we’re racking up on that debt every second of every day. Divide that by 300 million (the approximate number of people in the U.S. according to the Census Bureau), and you get $36,666. For a couple with two kids, that represents over $140,000. They could buy a pretty decent house for that much.
It kills me to think how hard I work and how financially responsible I try to be. I obsess about balancing my budget, paying my bills (including taxes), and saving for the future. Then I witness corporations who haven’t done such a great job of doing the same getting bailed out with my tax money. I watch our public servants embrace deficit spending and simply print more money to cover their wreckless spending.
I wonder why I should bother. Maybe I should just max out my credit and become a day trader to see whether I can score a big payday. Could be fun. Why not? Oh yeah, I remember… it’s because the federal government won’t bail out the little guy. Only the fat cats get the free pass.
Later: After doing a little more research, I discovered a page (America’s Total Debt Report) claiming that the national debt is more like $53 trillion, if you take into account “recognized debt of federal, state & local governments, international, private households, business and domestic financial sectors, including federal debt to trust funds.” This represents over $175,000 in debt for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. Wow. That’s far worse than the scenario I painted.
I also found a page (“How Bad is the National Debt, Really“) that says we need to look at the national debt in perspective and view it as net worth per citizen. If we look at the national debt as a liability and our national wealth as an asset and then subtract liabilities from assets to determine net worth, we’re actually in the black. According to this page, every individual’s share of the national debt is about $162,000, but everyone’s share of the national wealth is over $300,000. If that’s true, I’d like to know where I can go to collect my $138,000, because I could really use it right now.
In essence, I’m more confused than ever.
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I have an idea. I’ll tell 162,000 people that they are due $137,999, and that way I can collect my full $300,000. Yes! I just found my next scam… er, I mean, business idea.
But on a more serious note, I don’t think most people realize what dumping $700 billion dollars into the big American money bucket will do. Now that there is more money floating around, it devalues the $3.72 that I have in my pocket. And since I don’t get a raise every time Congress decides to print off more money, it makes me more poor.
I was below the poverty line for the first 10 years of my marriage. Don’t make me go back there!