George Schils Business Blog - BZ Bread

I originally set out to show that a deficit of $750 billion dollars divided among a population of about 300 million people results in a deficit of $2500 per person. This sounds "not bad". But then consider the total debt, not just "the deficit".

The National Debt Clock shows a debt of almost $35000 per U.S. citizen. This number is obtained as:

10.5 trillion / 305 million people
  = $34426 per U. S. citizen

• See the national debt as a percentage of GDP.
• See Wikipedia on U. S. debt.
• I think that the average household holds a credit card debt of around $8000. (I am not sure of this.) Compare this to the above numbers.
  • Supposedly there is $950 billion dollars of outstanding credit card debt (ref), and dividing by 305 million people gives a per person debt of $3115. (So "my" number above of $8000 per household seems reasonable. I think I heard this number on TV.)

Updated from:

• Date: Oct. 28, 2008

Here are some links to find various data on the national debt and related items.

• The GAO (possibly an oxymormoronic name) provides much data. Some specific links are given below.
• GAO Schedules of Federal Debt.
• Federal debt links.
• The national debt to the penny is given here.
• Summary schedules of federal debt.
• Outstanding debt over the date range from 2000 to 2008, given annually.
• Budget for fiscal year 2009 report (pdf).
• Monthly government public debt statement.
• Lastly see the many references at the end of this wiki page on the national debt.
• See this article on the public debt from 1861 to 1975.

Other national debt links:

• Not enough digits in the debt clock.
• National debt graph since the Great Depression.
• National debt FAQ by the Treasury.