14 Fun Facts About The U.S. Government's Massive Debt Problem

Quite terrifying when you actually read these '' fun facts '' but, hey, what's new ?

Source

#1) As of December 1st, 2009, the official debt of the United States government was approximately 12.1 trillion dollars.


#2) To pay this 12.1 trillion dollar debt would require approximately $40,000 from every single person living in the United States.


#3) Now the U.S. Congress has approved an increase in the U.S. government debt cap to 14.3 trillion dollars. to pay this increase off would require approximately $6,000 more from every man, woman and child in the United States.


#4) The U.S. government's debt ceiling has been raised six times since the beginning of 2006.


#5) So how hard is it to spend a trillion dollars? If you spent one dollar every second, you would have spent a million dollars in twelve days. At that same rate, it would take you 32 years to spend a billion dollars. But it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.


#6) When Ronald Reagan took office, the U.S. national debt was only about 1 trillion dollars.


#7) The U.S. national debt has more than doubled since the year 2000.

(Emphasis added by me)


For the other 7 '' fun '' facts, just click on the link at the start of the thread !

Peace !

You see, I really want to know how big of a toilet roll you can make with 12.1 trillion dollars in 1 dollar bills.

How many time could I wipe my butt?

How many times could this toilet roll go around the earth?

I believe these to be productive and relevant questions to demand answers for.
Maybe I should write the government. I'm sure they have thought about this.

How much money is in circulation? Paper money. Anyone know?!
Not numbers on a computer. Physical currency!! Just wondering if
the amount in circulation if all seized today would be enough to pay
the 12.1 Trillion Dollars.


That's a fun fact I'd like to know.

[edit on 15-8-2010 by keepureye2thesky]

reply to post by Unium


The scary thing is we could pay off our debt by nationalizing 2% of the notional value of the OTC derivatives using the numbers from the Bank for International Settlements. Its not the government mismanagement of our future tax dollars that will sink us - its the derivative bubble that will. Both private and public management now base their systems off future "profits" - the government bases it on future taxes. Now they base laws on it as well - they steal from Program B in the year 2015 to fund Program A in 2010 and call it a balanced 'funded' budget. It is sick - all common sense has left the building.

Originally posted by keepureye2thesky
How much money is in circulation? Paper money. Anyone know?!
Not numbers on a computer. Physical currency!! Just wondering if
the amount in circulation if all seized today would be enough to pay
the 12.1 Trillion Dollars.
[edit on 15-8-2010 by keepureye2thesky]

My understanding is that 800 billion was in circulation at the start of 2008 and sense then we've print up an additional 2 trillion dollars.

reply to post by Tarrok


not sure about the toilet paper perspective, but this gives a good idea of a trillion in hundreds.

what does one trillion look like?

I really wonder if the U.S plans to default on its debt (permanently)? The consequence would be that (overnight) the currency becames 99% worthless, however if this is cheaper than trying to $40,000 from every e.g. baby, child, jobless person, and pensioner then surely the question is if, not when?
After all, the vast majority of peoples wealth (if they have it) is locked up in assets of some kind.

Of course if the U.S defaults on its debt, so to will other countries. This would enable a new, “one world(ish)” currency to be launched. Rather than basing all its reserves on gold, it could be based on other things like Grain, oil, copper, and public land (therefore ensuring these reserves could serve commodity, price stability) (and hence inflation too).

[edit on 090705 by Liberal1984]

reply to post by rubbertramp


Oh dear jesus of socrates, that's ALOT OF DOUGH. :O ! I can almost touch it.....

Peace !

Originally posted by ararisq

Originally posted by keepureye2thesky
How much money is in circulation? Paper money. Anyone know?!
Not numbers on a computer. Physical currency!! Just wondering if
the amount in circulation if all seized today would be enough to pay
the 12.1 Trillion Dollars.
[edit on 15-8-2010 by keepureye2thesky]

My understanding is that 800 billion was in circulation at the start of 2008 and sense then we've print up an additional 2 trillion dollars.

Amazing...
Incredible to know that what is in circulation isn't enough to pay the nations
debt. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable in this area would think this is ok.
But I find this to be irresponsible. Like I said, What the hell do I know.

Even though my original post here was merely a joke on how little TPTB care for the us, I decided my curiosity needs satiating.

So, here's my latest contribution to humanity and this thread:


Assuming we don't make any modifications to the dollar bill and connect the narrow bits together to create our roll, I came up with the following figures:

(Disclaimer: I used the Metric system for my calculations)

12.1 Trillion Dollar Toilet Roll:

1,875,500,000 km long.
or
1,165,381,671.041 miles long.

That roll can circle the earth:
5,679,956,361 times at the equator.

Thanks to answers.com, the average American uses 21,000 sheets of toilet paper every year. Our dollar toilet roll can last a single American:

115,238,095 years, 2 months and 6 days. (I guess it could be passed down to offspring sort of like an heirloom?)

According to a mom on yahoo.answers.com, she suggests using 5-6 sheets for a single 'use' while on the toilet. Using 5 sheets (because bankers are stingy) we arrive at the result below.

Number of butts that can be wiped:
2,420,000,000,000

Lastly, our toilet roll length can also be converted to Astronomical Units where it would be:

3.54 au

That's over 3 and a half times the distance of the earth to the sun.


I hope that clears up any questions you might have had regarding the US debt situation.


Edit: for additional, vital information

[edit on 15-8-2010 by Tarrok]

[edit on 15-8-2010 by Tarrok]

Number 12 rule explains it all. There is no problem with debt when you can buy it off yourself with money you can print from thin air.

Originally posted by ararisq
reply to post by Unium

 

The scary thing is we could pay off our debt by nationalizing 2% of the notional value of the OTC derivatives using the numbers from the Bank for International Settlements. Its not the government mismanagement of our future tax dollars that will sink us - its the derivative bubble that will. Both private and public management now base their systems off future "profits" - the government bases it on future taxes. Now they base laws on it as well - they steal from Program B in the year 2015 to fund Program A in 2010 and call it a balanced 'funded' budget. It is sick - all common sense has left the building.

Bah, derivatives why worry !

It is just $1,200 Trillion USD hidden on the penny stock market
that is not regulated so they can hide their scam.

Never mind that $1,200 Trillion USD does not exist
in all the money systems of the world combined think of
all the wonderful looting the pirates get to do !

It like robbing a bank and getting more money than
all the banks on the planet have in their vaults.

No wonder they think they are the best and the brightest.

If I robbed a bank I could be shot to death, or spend life in prison,
but if I went to high brow college and greased the right palms
not only could I rob all banks on earth and get away with it.

I could then tell the government to give us more tax money to
hand ourselves bonuses for robbing all the ppl.

They have made theft into a new art form !

Just ask Iceland ! it was huge fun, they got to light fire to some
of their government buildings !

They can just call up helicopter Ben who can print more money
out of thin air like they did in Zimbabwe, Wiemar germany and
32 other time in history that hyperinflation happened.

Think of all the great real estate deals ppl are going to be able
to get once they bankrupt millions more US sheep.

You don't need to kill sheep to make money just shear them
every now and then.

Make sure and hold still the shears might knick you if you squirm.


[edit on 15-8-2010 by Ex_MislTech]

Heres an idea for those "good Samaritan" (pfff, yea right) billionaires that were talking about giving to charities recently. I suggest that if they REALLY want to make a difference why dont they PAY OFF THE DEBT OF THEIR COUNTRY??!!

We would then KNOW: 1) That the money DID in fact go where it was SUPPOSED to go, and 2) by doing this they will become true PATRIOTS of our country instead of RUINING our country by SHIPPING JOBS OVERSEAS, and DUMPING WASTE and POLLUTING this country with the places they do still have operating in the US.

Instead of SCREWING this country over, and benefiting like OVERLORDS and KINGS, they can FOR ONCE in their lives do something for this COUNTRY.

So billionaires, how is that for an idea?? You all LOVE THIS COUNTRY RIGHT??

Edit: STUPID TYPO

[edit on 15-8-2010 by Baloney]

reply to post by Baloney

Baloney, they couldn't if they wanted to. They all of them together do not have enough money. That is over 12,000 billion dollars. That is more money than there is on the face of the earth.

reply to post by Baloney


I think they love wiping their noses ( and other places) with their hundred dollar notes before loving their country ^^

Oh, and I love your signature !

Peace!

Oh yay...experts. Two questions...did Bush or did he not go to Congress to raise the cap three times? Conflicting information out there...don't know who to believe.

Is this number both foreign and domestic debt combined?

How much of it is accruing interest on each (foreign and domestic)? I assume that's some good chunk of #10?

[edit on 8/15/2010 by ~Lucidity]

reply to post by ~Lucidity


Wikipedia Article on United States public Debt


Does this help ?

Peace !

Thanks for the link Unium, was looking for something like that to investigate.

Wouldn't a collapse of the dollar effectively wipe the debts? Or are they anchored in assets?

What sort of claims could the foreign institutions make that own such a large piece of US federal debt?

we the people didnt run up any debt.

we the people never voted to spend a single dime.

the government arent we the people.

obama should pay it out of his ass and leave we the people out of it.

we the people should close the doors on the nest of vampires called washington DC and let the states worry about their own situations

we the people should raise import tax 50% and keep our natural resources for our children

we the people have unlimited oil and natural gas resources, we dont need foreign oil or influence.

Where did all this money go? I can tell you that my life hasn't improved. Sure I have a job and everyday I'm scared it won't be there tomorrow. It all seems so frivolous when you look where the money has been spent. None of it has been invested to help the people of this country and all has been spent over seas on killing and death. Sad really.