space_cowboy


 What else do we really make here any more?

Alembic guitars & basses.

I think I may be at the top your list JB.

Make cars that run on water! Maybe???

your check maybe on its way but not in dollars

Look at that and tell me if it does or doesn't scare you. Debt of $46,611 per tax payer. $1.4 BB budget deficit. Unfunded future liabilities of over $1MM per tax payer.

One interesting statistic to note in the ever-changing debt clock is the personal debt. Although the personal debt per taxpayer is not listed we could estimate the ratio of citizen to taxpayer from the numbers given as about 2.8. Not that it would be useful to do so in a tax system in which some high earners pay minimal taxes and some poor people fund nearly as much of the unfunded liabilities as the wealthy. Of course one way to manage humongous numbers for unfunded liability is to fund them better. Funding our most expensive social welfare commitments with a flat tax on labor would seem to be a good incentive for employers to shop for cheaper labor in another country.

According to the clock, federal debt per citizen would be (for a few seconds at least) around $46,612 compared to personal debt per citizen of $51,446. If we managed our national debt with the same reluctance to borrow that we manage our personal debts the situation would clearly be significantly worse. In other words, the willingness of our elected leaders to spend faster than they are willing to tax is a reflection of our citizens' behavior of spending more than they earn in this regard.

None of this is to say the we can either borrow or monetize (inflate) our way out of debt without doing severe damage to our (or the world) economy. Nor can we economize our way out without problems. Will raising the retirement age to 90 make it easier for recent college grads to find work? Will a 90 year old ditch digger need to claim disability or will we just re-train him for a new career as a throw pillow, or an investment banker? Will making it impossible for the US government to pay its bills while we work all this out solve these problems?

Stay tuned.