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.
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.
3 comments:
Good précis except for one point. We don't ever have to pay back what we owe. The national debt isn't like an individual's debt. People die. Nations can die too but they usually don't. The national debt can be rolled over and over and over...
That said, we absolutely shouldn't be running deficits year after year after year - ESPECIALLY deficits of over a trillion dollars. And our debt shouldn't be anywhere near as big as it is. It's gotten well beyond the point where we can comfortably service it.
The blog is resurrected? Good. I am attempting same in near future.
The blog is back up. Good. I am attempting same in near future.
Post a Comment