BZ Bread

by George Schils.

Some National Debt Notes

Thursday, October 30, 2008

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