It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Spending money has been the cure of all of America’s ills recently[.
The financial system is broken, you say? How about spending $700 billion?
The era of financial excess, however, may be over for good. America is traversing on an unsustainable course and must adopt a new ethic of fiscal responsibility.
Over the past eight years our national debt has nearly doubled. As of Oct. 23, the national debt totaled $10.5 trillion. When unfunded social obligations such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are taken into account the total is over $55 trillion.
Non-mortgage consumer debt for American consumers is $2.58 trillion. Americans owe another $10.54 trillion in mortgages. The average American family owes roughly $117,951 while saving a mere $392 per year.
Americans have also developed an obsession with plastic. The average family owns 13 credit cards, owing an average of $8,400 on those cards and paying $950 in credit card interest each year. Last year, Americans made over $1.5 trillion in credit card purchases.