The National Debt
Where Does This End ?
What will our grandkids have to pay for interest on the national debt? Today we pay over $230 Billion a year. Paying $300-500 Billion a year is not beyond our reach. Our country could go from spending 7% on debt to 10% even 15%. These kinds of expenditures will cripple if not destroy the future of all Americans, except for the top 3% whose future is rosy no matter what happens.
Who do we owe the money to? The Federal Reserve is the largest single holder of the debt and the interest income that comes from ownership at 40.6 % totaling 3.4 Trillion. Next comes foreign countries at 22.7 % some 1.8 Trillion (Japan 850 Billion, China 238 Billion are by far the largest owners). The balance is a list of entities none higher than 7% that includes insurance companies, mutual funds, pension funds both public and private, state and local governments and their retirement funds, banks, and US savings bonds.
Our country can never get out of debt with elected officials ear-marking projects to reward wealthy contributors back home, accepting huge sums from corporations that want laws to provide easy access to public money and monopoly pricing advantages, and the ever present shoveling of income to foreign citizens at the expense of once-employed Americans. This selling of America is being done on such a scale that our grandkids will be lucky to have pot or anything else to pee in.
Treason used to carry the penalty of death. Let's bring back the good old days, when betraying a country was a dangerous thing to do.
The national debt started on January 1, 1791 at $75 million (about the increase per hour these days). The following shows the growth of the debt over time:
1982 1 Trillion
1987 2
1989 3
1992 4
1995 5
2002 6
2003 7
2005 8
Is it me or does going up a Trillion almost every year seem bad, really bad.
It's like taking a 500% of current value of home mortgage out on your home that your kids are legally liable for paying without any bankruptcy clauses to provide an out. Then spending like a drunken sailor and dying. Have our leaders no shame.
Published by Lloyd Frye
Currently unemployed after being NAFTAed in the back in 2003. I am attempting to write for a living. I belong to virtual writers workshop and have several hundred pages of historical epic in first draft. View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentInteresting background/facts. Frustrating to think about. (But, we need MORE people thinking about it, to get it turned in a more positive direction, don't we?)
The US is out of step with the rest of the developed world in many respects. While other countries quietly labour to pay down their debt, the US government spends it's future away. Unfortunately, the US is not climbing to build the country but is being spent to fight wars. Infrastructure is crumbling as cities, highways, bridges and hydro capacity ages. A lack of a universal health care program has left many Americans in danger of complete bankruptcy in the event of a serious illness. America is still a great nation, but if the general public doesn't wake from it's slumber America will follow the path of previous great nations. The Romans, the Greeks, the Chinese Dynasty, have all risen and fallen over time. In almost every instance, their demise was attributed to a moral decline and a lack of fiscal responsibility. We may not be around to see it but our grandchildren might.