A child born in the world today will have to pay a total of 187,600.00 during their life span to pay the interest on the national debt. Remember, this is the interest only, this does not include the principle of nearly $ 5,000,000,000,000.00 amassing at the incredible rate of over $23,000,000.00 per hour. Some believe that this is the result of a morally bankrupt government and a society that is equally guilty to allow this to continue. Some believe the debt is not that serious when compared to the total assets of the nation. Unfortunately many are only concerned with how much they can spend rather than how much they can save for future generations.
Our economy appears to be in good shape; the stock market is doing very well; unemployment is down; inflation is under control; and the president has just announced that the deficit for 1997 will have a surplus for the first time in many years. So what is there to worry about? The National Debt, that's what!
Attempting to visualize the size of the National is an exercise in futility. The number in terms of dollars is impossible to grasp. I would like to show you what it means in more understandable terms.
Most all of us Americans drive a car. We understand what it means to take a long trip. Some of us can average 5 or 6 hundred miles a day, if necessary. That can be very trying, especially, if we have a carload of young children with us. So lets say that if we drive 65 miles-an-hour for about 8 hours a day, we can average 500 miles per day. If we are going across the country, five days of steady driving is quite tiring, but it can be done. Now let's take 5,122, 000,000,000 dollar bills and lay them out end to end in a straight line, then get into your car and start driving 500 miles per day from the start of the first dollar bill to the last one. You will drive every day: no holidays, no vacations, no sick leave, etc., 500 miles each and every day. Do you know how long it will take to get from one end to the other? Take a guess! 2 weeks? A month? 6 months? One year? Man, that's 182,500 miles! That's over 7 times around the world. Sorry, you are just getting started. A dollar bill is 6 and one- eighth inches long. Don't forget the one eighth inch. 5 trillion of them is a lot of miles driving.
Here is the formula:
6.125x5,122,000,000,000= total inches; divided by 12= total feet; by 5280=total miles; divided by 500= total days; divided by 365= total years of driving. How about 2,713 years? In other words, if you started driving the day Christ was born, and drove every single day up until the end of 1997, you would still have another 716 years to go to the end of the year 2713. But just think, by the time you got to the year 2002, the government would have added another $1.385 Trillion dollars of debt, extending your vacation trip by another 733 years of driving.------------------- to the year 3446.
Do you begin to comprehend the magnitude of our debt?
Now a more important question: Do you think that our President and our Congressman comprehend the size of our debt? Sure, they do! But you recall the platitudes from both sides: We will balance the budget (deficit) by the end of 1997. Balance the budget means eliminate the deficit. Big Deal! We already know that only about half the debt increase comes from the deficit. Have you heard any one of them present a plan to stop the growth of the debt and to start to pay the DEBT? Certainly not!
There is a difference between the deficit and the debt. The debt is the actual principal owed but the politicians are just trying to balance the interest. Politically debt and deficit sound so similar and the American public largely doesn't recognize the difference.
If you had cut an artery in your wrist, how would you like to hear the doctor say, I will apply a tourniquet sometime in 2002. Wouldn't you want a new doctor in a hurry? Think about that. You get to vote for a new doctor every four years, Only the candidates seem to lack an understanding of the problem or lack the courage to talk to the public about it.
Remember as the Deficit has been reduced the Debt continues to skyrocket.