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And a recent report from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) makes some startling claims about how much U.S. taxpayers own in real assets. According to the report, the U.S. government owns:
More than 900,000 separate real assets covering more than 3 billion sq. ft.
Mineral rights, on and offshore, covering 2.515 billion acres of land, more than the total surface land in Canada
45,190 underutilized buildings, the operating costs of which are $1.66 billion annually
Oil and gas resources on and offshore worth $128 trillion, roughly eight times the national debt of the country
The fear is that if and when the 'market' for those securities becomes cloudy, then the government might have to start selling real estate. I think they already lease some land, but I don't know the income. And maybe they do sell occasionally.
Originally posted by MrSpad
I do think it would be fun to have seen the wars in Iraq and Afganistan payed by selling off some oil assets instead of having the next 3 generarations paying for it every year.