The share of everyone in America with the debt at $10.6 trillion is (as I type this) is just under $35K per person. The additional $7+ trillion adds another $24K or so to the individual total. So we’re up to $59K per person in the US.
Interestingly enough, the nearly $8 trillion:
I can’t imagine that half the mortgages in the US are in danger of default (yet), so perhaps what we should, and I know this is going to sound crazy, but why don’t we simply pay off half the mortgages in the US with the money? If half of Americans no longer had to pay their mortgages, they could afford to buy stuff like crazy! Given that many of them have monthly payments higher than your average car payment, they could now afford to go out and buy cars built by the Big Three (Say, here’s a really crazy thought: The government says, “We’ll pay off your mortgage, if you agree to buy at least one new car from the Big Three.” Its win-win for everyone! Wall Street gets their money, because people are paying off their mortgages, thanks to government money, the car makers get their money, the tax payers get a new car and their mortgage paid off! What’s not to love?)
Is it just me, or does it seem like Bush is hellbent on running this country into the ground before he leaves office?
You know, I’m not an economist (or even very good at math) but it seems to me that if the feds were to just give every man, woman, and child in the country, say, $150,000, it would be a lot cheaper, plus almost all that money would pour right back into the economy as most people would probably pay off their mortgages, buy cars, pay off debts, and invest. Is there some glaringly obvious flaw that would make this unfeasable that I’m not seeing? (Serious question. I really know very little about how the economy works.)
Just handing them a check would cause inflation because, if for no other reason, you’d have people who’d say, “Hey! The government’s giving away all this free money, so I’m going to raise my prices.” Then you’d have people who’d say, “I’ve got $150K in my pocket, I’m going to quit my job and just party!” which means that even the guy who didn’t raise his prices just for the hell of it, would be forced to raise his, because he’d have to pay more money to get people to work for him.
I noticed. But I remember all the fuss when they tried to push the 700 billion deal through congress a bunch of weeks ago. How did they go up to 10 trillion without similar noise?
And Bush further solidifies himself as the worst president in American history.
Can someone who understands economics explain what the national debt really means? It seems like a unicorn that’s just a figment of all of our imaginations. As I saw the 10 trillion dollar number for a split second I was enraged because I will have to pay for this being a young American. Then I thought, who is going to make me pay for it? What candidate will ever get elected promising to keep taxes the same and reduce our benefits (ie, cut various forms of welfare, defense spending, education, blah, etc) just to reduce the national debt? So basically, is this chicken ever going to come home to roost?
Well, you’re paying something like $400b IIRC on interest at the moment, so the chickens are roosting as we speak. I’d think you’d want to pay it back sometime, since tossing away $400b a year is a bit of a waste, yes?
