How Will You Pay Your Share?
Talk about having to take a pause... The National Debt Clock in NYC can no longer show the true national debt. Read this article to see the details, but apparently when it was put up in 1989, no one thought the national debt would grow greater than 9.9 TRILLION dollars. This week, it went over $10 Trillion, hence the problem. There aren't enough digits available on the sign.
Now that isn't as scary as the bottom number... the "Your Family's Share of $86,017." How is it possible that each family's share of the national debt is double the average earnings of an average family, with most families living on wages that are a third of their share of the debt? I also must mention that this is in addition to each families personal debt, such as their mortgage, car payments, credit card debt. Are you listening now??
Assuming the average family has at least a $200,000 mortgage, $15,000 car loan and $5,000 worth of credit cards (and believe me, these are VERY low assumptions, most everyone I know in my age group has higher balances than this) and earns $43,000 per year (approximately the national average) it will take them over 7 years to pay off both their debt and their share of the current debt.
Keep in mind, that these figures DO NOT include groceries, gasoline, or other daily living expenses! This is paying every dime in income to either their *assumed* personal debt, and their income taxes (not property taxes, not sales taxes and certainly not STATE taxes).
A person earning $43,000 per year, would pay about $13,330 in income taxes alone. (Remember, these are all approximate, made up numbers I am just playing with right now). Realistically, if those taxes were dedicated to the national debt, after 7 years, this wage earner would have paid $93,310 in income taxes. The problem lies in the fact that this is not the final debt, and does not take into account the annual federal budgets. Those budgets eat up every cent of income tax that every taxpayer pays, and then some, since there are other taxes that I don't even get into for this one, so every year the national debt increases to make up the difference.
After 7 years, and payments of $93,310, the nation and the taxpayer will not have reduced either of their shares of the national debt at all. So... how will you pay your share, if what you do pay does not contribute to paying off the debt, and you can't control what is spent to begin with?
Now that isn't as scary as the bottom number... the "Your Family's Share of $86,017." How is it possible that each family's share of the national debt is double the average earnings of an average family, with most families living on wages that are a third of their share of the debt? I also must mention that this is in addition to each families personal debt, such as their mortgage, car payments, credit card debt. Are you listening now??
Assuming the average family has at least a $200,000 mortgage, $15,000 car loan and $5,000 worth of credit cards (and believe me, these are VERY low assumptions, most everyone I know in my age group has higher balances than this) and earns $43,000 per year (approximately the national average) it will take them over 7 years to pay off both their debt and their share of the current debt.
Keep in mind, that these figures DO NOT include groceries, gasoline, or other daily living expenses! This is paying every dime in income to either their *assumed* personal debt, and their income taxes (not property taxes, not sales taxes and certainly not STATE taxes).
A person earning $43,000 per year, would pay about $13,330 in income taxes alone. (Remember, these are all approximate, made up numbers I am just playing with right now). Realistically, if those taxes were dedicated to the national debt, after 7 years, this wage earner would have paid $93,310 in income taxes. The problem lies in the fact that this is not the final debt, and does not take into account the annual federal budgets. Those budgets eat up every cent of income tax that every taxpayer pays, and then some, since there are other taxes that I don't even get into for this one, so every year the national debt increases to make up the difference.
After 7 years, and payments of $93,310, the nation and the taxpayer will not have reduced either of their shares of the national debt at all. So... how will you pay your share, if what you do pay does not contribute to paying off the debt, and you can't control what is spent to begin with?
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