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For the first time in U.S. history, the national debt has risen past $17 trillion.
That number is a bit hard to comprehend and means little to Americans when not applied to their everyday lives. So just how does the national debt affect consumers, and why should the average American care about how much this country owes? Here’s why and how.
So says an introduction by Aubree Ritter to an infographic* from www.accounting-degree.org entitled Paying Their Dues: How the U.S. National Debt Affects YOU.
[The following is presented by Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com and may have been edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and/or reformatted (some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. This paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.]
Understanding the National Debt
The national debt is money the federal government owes to various sources. 2/3 of the national debt owed to the public, businesses and foreign governments that bought investments in the U.S. The rest of the national debt is actually what the U.S. federal government owes itself, as loans for things like Social Security and other trusts.
How the National Debt is Affecting Americans Today
- Rising interest rates
The higher the consumer debt and interest rates on credit cards and loans, the more foreign investments the country receives. This is bad for you, but good for the federal government. - Weak job markets
High national debt means little economic growth. Unfortunately, this also means fewer jobs are created through government spending on projects like road construction and small business loans. - Higher taxes
When the government can’t make revenue through typical means to pay off the debt, it will turn to raising taxes for consumers and property owners.
The Countries With the Highest Debt-to-GDP Ratios (see details below)
[Editor’s Note: The author’s views and conclusions in the above article are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original post. Furthermore, the views, conclusions and any recommendations offered in this article are not to be construed as an endorsement of such by the editor.]
*http://www.accounting-degree.org/national-debt/
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Good Graphics which should be viewed by everyone in the USA that can or will soon vote!
While Main Stream Media (MSM) broadcasts Big Sports and reality “Fluff” shows, their Corp. Owners are succeeding in feeding us what I call Financial Propaganda by failing to present the important topics of our time because they don’t want us to question their activities.
Unless you are tuned into the Web you probably don’t know anything about:
A. A major war possibly starting in the Ukraine
B. The Japanese seeking nuclear weapons because they are arguing with China over mineral rights in disputed island that they and other all claim as their own.
C. Which Countries are now having massive civil protests because their greedy Leaders are spending money on themselves and their wealthy friends instead of the people.
D. How in the USA we are now seeing a division develop between the have’s and the have-nots because the Ultra Wealthy now own far more of the USA than ever before in the history of our Country. Now the elected Leaders of both parties are bickering with each other, which only makes things worse of everyone, except the Ultra Wealthy who will end up being the landlords of the rest of us.
The National Debt means that other Countries can now gobble up our farmlands, our water rights, our minerals and anything else of value because they have the US$ to do it with, since we have borrowed so much from them for so long. Expect US students to begin learning Chinese, Japanese and many other languages as ever more US businesses are bought up by what we now consider “Foreign” Corporations.
Unless you are wealthy, your young children and especially you grand and/or great-grand children will live in a much different USA and/or Canada that you grew up in, since as Bob Dylan sang in 1964, “The times they are a changing'”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_They_Are_a-Changin‘