Monday, February 14, 2011

National Debt Just Topped GDP

For the math challenged among you, I'll try to explain this carefully.  Our government's debt just topped $14.15 Trillion.  that's 14,150,000,000,000.00

Pundits like to talk about how the national debt equals approximately $45,000 per person or even $127,000 per tax payer.  Let's look closer.

According to IRS Statistics (slightly dated, but probably still close) 11.8% of the population makes more than $100,000.00 per year.  This means 88.2% make less.  That same 11.8% of the population is responsible for paying approximately 70% of the taxes.

So 88.2% of the country pays 30% of the taxes.

There are 310 million people in this country.  At 11.8% that's 36,580,000 people making more than $100,000 and paying 70% of the taxes.    Those 36,580,000 are responsible for about $9,905,000,000,000 of our national debt or $270,776.38 per person.

The remaining 88.2% can relax.  You're only responsible for $4,245,000,000,000 or $15,525.57 per person.  That's a Honda Civic.

1 comment:

  1. I don't want a Honda Civic, and I certainly don't need any more debt!

    ReplyDelete