10.1.08

Public Debt about to hit 10 Trillion $$$

Each American owes $30,000 if you divide up the public debt. The new baby you just welcomed into the world? well, he owes $30K already! So this post from CalculatedRisk made me look up the actual numbers.ร‚ย  Then I discovered that the Treasury Dept has been publishing the total public debt number daily since Jan 1993.ร‚ย  Here is the quick comparison I made using ManyEyes.

If you want to get the whole data set and the rise of this humongous number, see the daily figures here as data set and line graph.

I understand this bailout should happen or must happen or whatever but really can we start freaking taxing the rich?

One other note, I don’t know how Americans see debt. I hate debt, in any shape or form. I know it’s a bit extreme and may be slightly irrational.ร‚ย  People claim there is good debt such as mortgage. Even so, I still hate debt. So guess how much of the national budget is used to pay the interest for this public debt of 10 Trillion?

Here is your answer : 16.194%, which is equivalent to 8 times what the government spends on education (~2%). So last year, $4858 of my fed tax payment went to China as interest. excellent right?

Thank you George W Bush, I am waiting for Jan 20th 2009. And it better not be ‘that old dude’ who wants to keep Bush tax cuts and make them permanent giving the inaugural address.