US National Debt Crisis Simplified

[Cerveza]

US Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cuts: $38,500,000,000

Now just remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Total budget cuts: $385

[Crome969]

US Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cuts: $38,500,000,000

Now just remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Total budget cuts: $385

Pretty Crazy

[Goliath]

I would love to be able to write some laws that are much needed.

1)  House and Senate and only do a max of 8 years.  What is good enough for the president should be good enough for them too.  Some of these guys stay in there and just kill the budget and get too powerful.  Not to mention changing them out will bring fresh ideas.

2)  Absolutely ZERO money for pork programs if the budget is not balanced.  Period!!

3)  No more raises for them until the budget is balanced and the country is out of the red.

4)  Stop fighting everyone else's wars!!  Nobody looked at us during our revolutionary war and said hey... We need to go straighten them out!  Let them countries develop on their own. 

5)  Let the freaking banks and businesses that have over extended themselves fail as they should.  New business will come and hopefully with better management.

6)  Stop giving illegal immigrants free assistance, free healthcare, and every other benefit that is paid for by the working people's taxes.  I don't work and pay my taxes to have that money given to someone that isn't here legally and pays nothing to this country themselves.

WoW... I could go on and on but I feel my blood pressure going up so I better not.. LOL  I like the example you provided Cerveza.  Even an 8th grader can see something wrong with that picture.

[Crome969]

[Endless Night]

Add in the fact that its all just monopoly money and you understand why people are buying gold and other mineral assets, in the vain hope that their current purchasing power value will not get deflated.

I used to be shocked at how local governments and up mismanage their money .. and why the american populace as a whole mismanages their money... but now i see that both are act the same.  MY conclusion is too much short term thinking,  to much instant gratification. And no real planning for the rainy day that always comes.

[UOMaddog]

Budget SURPLUSES (haven't heard that in awhile) should have been SAVED for when there were budget SHORTFALLS!

This one always used to bug me when I lived in Pennsylvania. Every year, they'd have a "budget" for snowplowing/rock salt etc. Each year they had a "surplus" they'd go and buy new equipment or spend it on other projects. Then on the years they had a couple major snow storms they'd B**** and whine about how they don't have enough money to keep snow plowing so it's going to take longer because they can't have people working overtime! It's ridiculous, the reason you BUDGET is so that you get a rough estimate of how much you're going to spend that year. If you over-estimated, GREAT! Save the money! If you under-estimated, then pull a little from your savings and adjust it next year! It's not a difficult thing to do! It's BASIC MATH!

[Crome969]

That definitly reminds me on the TV Show "American Dad"

Stans Boss : Okay we are under our Budget and we need to spend 3 million Dollars until Midnight, else our next Budget will be cuttet down.
Next Location:
Stans Boss: Take a Stripper, take this money, every FBI Agent must spent now 100.000 Dollar until Midnight, give extra money for private Dances and go on. Its an Order!

Just amazing how much truth is behind this Scene.

[Goliath]

Add in the fact that its all just monopoly money and you understand why people are buying gold and other mineral assets, in the vain hope that their current purchasing power value will not get deflated.

I used to be shocked at how local governments and up mismanage their money .. and why the american populace as a whole mismanages their money... but now i see that both are act the same.  MY conclusion is too much short term thinking,  to much instant gratification. And no real planning for the rainy day that always comes.

Welll EN, you are correct to a point.  The main difference being that me being the American populace if I mismanage my finances and cannot pay my bills then I get penalized.  Bad credit ratings, highest interest on loans, debt collection, foreclosures, etc etc.  There is nothing holding the politicians or big business to those same standards.  And that is the issue at hand.  No accountability for their miss management of the country.

[Endless Night]

Add in the fact that its all just monopoly money and you understand why people are buying gold and other mineral assets, in the vain hope that their current purchasing power value will not get deflated.

I used to be shocked at how local governments and up mismanage their money .. and why the american populace as a whole mismanages their money... but now i see that both are act the same.  MY conclusion is too much short term thinking,  to much instant gratification. And no real planning for the rainy day that always comes.

Welll EN, you are correct to a point.  The main difference being that me being the American populace if I mismanage my finances and cannot pay my bills then I get penalized.  Bad credit ratings, highest interest on loans, debt collection, foreclosures, etc etc.  There is nothing holding the politicians or big business to those same standards.  And that is the issue at hand.  No accountability for their miss management of the country.

Their nearly was... remember the US nearly had it AAA debt rating downgraded.  That would have seen the cost for the US to borrow money go way up and add trillions in interest to the nation debt and thus ultimately have an effect on us all.

[UOMaddog]

I almost wish we had been downgraded by everyone and our costs to borrow money WOULD go up, that way, maybe SOMEONE would think twice before borrowing any more!

[Canuker]

A friend's wife was complaining to me about how they/he had withdrawn money from the Canadian version of a 401K(RSP) to pay down debts and he spend the money on 24" rims for his Denali truck amongst other items...sad but I'd be shocked not to see divorce coming from that house soon.  

It's a sad view when those who run the countries, any first world one, have no idea on simple forsight.  It seems to me that most of the US politicians are wealthy and won't screw themselves over to bad.  Canadian ones are there for the amazing pension which a normal person can't dream of getting.

Shoot them all and lets start again?

I missed commenting upon gold and such, the belief that this will be some sort of doomsday cover makes me laugh even harder.  If you were so lucky as to have actually purchased the physical items and now can trade it for food or something else we are all so screwed, shotguns and long barrel rifle's will have a much greater value.  I'd be up the old creek.

[onlyindreams]

That definitly reminds me on the TV Show "American Dad"

Stans Boss : Okay we are under our Budget and we need to spend 3 million Dollars until Midnight, else our next Budget will be cuttet down.
Next Location:
Stans Boss: Take a Stripper, take this money, every FBI Agent must spent now 100.000 Dollar until Midnight, give extra money for private Dances and go on. Its an Order!

Just amazing how much truth is behind this Scene.

Sad how true this is. My best friend was (I don't know the official title) head chef at one military base over seas. He had a $3-4 million budget for the year. He was able to go $1million under budget. Come October his superior finds out and gets angry. He's told to spend ALL the budget. So the last 3 months he had to spend $1million dollars on food. Every soldier ate like royalty. Fresh seafood, the best steaks, etc and he still was under.

[Crome969]

[Goliath]

Sad how true this is. My best friend was (I don't know the official title) head chef at one military base over seas. He had a $3-4 million budget for the year. He was able to go $1million under budget. Come October his superior finds out and gets angry. He's told to spend ALL the budget. So the last 3 months he had to spend $1million dollars on food. Every soldier ate like royalty. Fresh seafood, the best steaks, etc and he still was under.

They do this even state budget too.  Their reasoning behind this is because if you spend less then when budget funding comes up for the next year they will base your funds on the lesser amount.  So if he spent only 3 million instead of the 4 million they would only allow him to have a 3 million budget the next fiscal year.  Essentially punishing the man for staying within his budget.

[Endless Night]

I missed commenting upon gold and such, the belief that this will be some sort of doomsday cover makes me laugh even harder.  If you were so lucky as to have actually purchased the physical items and now can trade it for food or something else we are all so screwed, shotguns and long barrel rifle's will have a much greater value.  I'd be up the old creek.

Not doomsday cover.. its move of a cover against currency devaluation. Remember money used to be based on the gold standard its now based on the monopoly standard...  So traditionally if/when a particular currency devalues gold increases in value relative to that currency to maintain the same worth or better.  When it comes to doomsday scenarios nothing much is  going to help you, besides living on a self supporting hard to get to tropical island.