Let's be honest. We have a budgeting issue.
Can Dave Ramsey be nominated for the secretary of the treasury?
I remember the global financial crisis quite vividly. I was 21 at the time starting my first real job. One controversial moment for me was the bailout of the major banks. The government was trying pass a massive stimulus package to avoid a “complete collapse” of the financial system. At the the time it was the biggest bailout package the world has ever seen. An unimaginable sum of money to hand out to banksters.
That was 2008. Today it’s different. The same sum of money would amount to just a starter package - something you can begin negotiating over. Before all the pork has managed to work itself in. That’s not because we have more money to throw around. It’s because we keep on borrowing and financing it though debt.
If you add up all government debt today - that is federal, state and local, you end up with an unimaginable sum. As of this writing, it stands at 35 trillion. The number is of course meaningless. It’s just not comprehensible to our puny human brains. To bring it down to earth, we can think of it in more familiar terms.
First, let’s look at it on per capita basis (per person). The U.S. has about 335 million people. The debt per individual works out to roughly $100,000 - rounding down of course. That’s a model S in every driveway. But wait …
Not every person pays taxes. We have the retirees, kids, illegal immigrants with no SSN’s and people below the income threshold. If we were to take just the tax payers, this number balloons to an unbelievable $300,000 per tax payer.
Another interesting observation. An average house in the United States, would run you about $380,000 in 2023. Yes, this is average across the entire country. No, you cannot afford anything for that price in San Francisco, New York, or Seattle. I don’t think you could even buy a parcel of land - maybe a parking spot. But if you put 20% down, your mortgage would be roughly $300,000.
Coincidence? Yes. But it’s almost like the government has managed to hang another mortgage on your neck. Except this time, instead of mortgaging a house, they are mortgaging your kids’ future.
For more fun facts, check out U.S. debt clock.