I am trying to remember the senator who once said, "a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money."
With financial issues being so much on everyone’s mind these days, for what it’s worth here is a little perspective:
according to the U.S. National Debt Clock
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
The Outstanding Public (i.e. National) Debt as of 01 Oct 2008 at 03:59:06 PM GMT is:
$9,950,049,028,443.36
That almost 10 trillion dollars, folks . . . and it will be ten trillion by election day.
(I love the 36 cents at the end . . .)
The site also says that
The estimated population of the United States is 304,828,829
so each citizen’s share of this debt is $32,641.43.
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What is even more sobering here is the amount we as a large group of citizens pay out each year in interest on this debt. Right now that interest alone is over 300 billion dollars annually. Over the past 20 years, the total interest paid on the debt has totaled over 5 trillion dollars.
Just remember, when politicians talk about "the deficit," they’re only talking about how much more money we are borrowing THIS year, not how much money we owe TOTAL.
Granted, some of the interest money goes back to Americans who hold savings bonds. But Japan has loaned us over a trillion, as has China. Brasil and the UK each have loaned us 300 billion.
As long as the military is strong enough to keep collection agents out, we’re ok.
As long our ability to pay back the money exists, we’re okay. (Of course that means we as a nation have to keep working harder and harder just to keep up.) Note, if other governments stop loaning us money, we are not okay.
I am starting to think that maybe the government needs to call in one of those credit crisis companies. Ater all, we are getting maxed out on our cards.
But in the midst of all this lousy news look at it this way: $700 billion is less than 7% of what we have already borrowed.
It’s chump change.
