How Much Do YOU Owe?

If you like numbers, you will love this posting...  This is a snapshot of the United States and where we stand, financially.

For the first time ever, last Friday, on 12/31/2010, the U.S. national debt passed $14,000,000,000,000.  That is $14 Trillion.  With a U.S. population of 310,586,200; the debt equates to $45,000 per person - every man, women and child in the country.  If you are paying attention to current events in Washington, one issue is an upcoming vote as to increasing the debt ceiling for the government.  Currently, the law limits the national debt to $14,294,000,000,000.  That is expected to be reached in three months.

The national debt was at $5,774,546,000,000 eleven years ago.  That is a 143% increase since 2000.  We increased the debt by one trillion dollars since June 1, 2010.  Three years ago it was at $9,249,122,300,000.  That is a 50% increase in three years. 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the debt to be $16,971,879,000,000 in four years.  But, based on the current rate of spending, it would be $22,037,502,000,000.

The official number of unemployed is 15,450,000.  The is 5% of the total population and 10% of workforce.  We have 20,500,000 government employees.  Almost 45,000,000 are on food stamps.

The GDP - Gross Domestic Product stands at $14,672,543,000,000.  The debt to GDP ratio is 95.45%.  As the economy continues to suffer and the government spending remains out of control, before long, our debt will surpass our GDP.  This means that the U.S. will owe more than the gross amount of everything produced in the country for a year. 

Currently, $4.4 trillion of our debt is held by foreign countries.  The estimated unfunded liabilities for the country add up to $112 trillion, which equates to $1,012,648 per U.S. taxpayer (110,587,000 taxpayers).

This is not just a national problem.  Many of our States are facing a similar crisis.  Many foreign countries are also in a financial crisis.  The price of a barrel of oil has just passed $90 and is heading up.  The average price of a gallon of gas is over $3.00 and rising.  The price of gold has passed $1,400 per ounce and silver has passed $30 per ounce.

Now for a little perspective.  The current national debt of $14,005,232,800,000 amounts to a stack of dollar bills, laid flat and end-to-end, extending around the world at the equator, being 229 inches or 19 feet high. 

A million seconds is 12 days.  A billion seconds is 32 years.  A trillion seconds is 32,000 years.  If we stopped borrowing and began paying back our debt, interest free (which it is not), one dollar per second; it would take 448,000 years.

(Some of the above numbers were found on USdebtclock.org)