Saturday, August 06, 2011

Welcome to the United States of Bananastan!

Why did S&P downgrade the USA to AA+, trending negative?
The numbers speak for themselves:
Debt - Current National Debt: $14 Trillion. Google what a trillion is, try to wrap your mind around it.
Current US population: 330 Million people. Debt per capita if the $14 Trillion debt is evenly distributed: $42,424.
In 2009 the IRS received 236 Million tax returns, collecting roughly $1.9 Trillion in taxes. Of these, 47% paid NO TAXES AT ALL. Some estimates say as many as 51% pay nothing.
Dividing current national debt by the 125 million actual tax payers equates to $112,000 debt per taxpayer. Do you have an extra $112,000 lying around? Will you ever have an extra $112,000 lying around? I didn't think so, neither does S&P. That, and for the first time our national debt exceeds our GDP, which is to say that we now owe more than we produce as a nation in a given year.
Welcome to Bananastan.