Rules 'hiding' trillions in debt - Liability $516,348 per U.S. household

Rules 'hiding' trillions in debt - Liability $516,348 per U.S. household

www.usatoday.com

The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year — far more than the official $248 billion deficit — when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
...
Bottom line: Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined

(visit the link for the full news article)

I was surprised to not see this posted here, it makes me wonder what accounting techniques the U.S. government use. I mean obviously the Social Security and Medicare are off balance sheet...but what else is? Isn't that what got the banks in trouble...or more...like Enron? To me the Federal Government is a house of cards that is only sustained because of the private industry and a printing press. I mean to say, what would and will happen as the Federal Government grows with less and less private industry to sustain it as it overtakes their roles?

www.usatoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I can't afford this debt. Nor can my children and their children. My wife often says, if we could go back in time, she would not have gotten pregnant. I had my own methods of making sure she would not get pregnant, but she didn't like them. But, yeah. If I could do it all over again, I would not have brought offspring into this world. My being able to continue in this universe for eternity certainly isn't dependent upon having children. But, it's done. Now it's all just an exercise in stupidity. It's a new world from what I grew up in. All looked good when we were in our child producing ages. Its all different now. I see no way out than for our country, the U.S.A. to become less consumeristic.

I read reports that say Americans had higher income in the 70's than now. I am not quite convinced. In the 70's my wife and I had no car. We rode the bus or walked. We couldn't afford a car and insurance. We had few clothes. We had a small 12 inch B and W TV that got just the local broadcast stations. I had a manual typewriter to type my stories on. How does this compare to the 70's? I have much more now than then. My poor daughters, at least they are considered poor by government standards, have much more than I had 35 years ago.

The only thing I can think of that was better then, than now, is that we had less worries.And, yeah, we both had to work to keep a family.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul only works until Peter wisens up and wants his money back.

I think of the above when it comes to creative accountancy.
And creative accountancy seems to be biting a lot of governments in the rear end.


[edit on 30-5-2009 by Flighty]