Instead, it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars, from every single American, to solve the problem – and that’s just to break even. I don’t even want to think about how much people would have to spend to get the country safely in the green.
The country’s current level of debt is being tracked by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which has a horrifying live counter to update users on just how much America owes at any given moment.
The country’s national debt is in the trillions (Getty Stock Photo)
The reason the national debt is so high is down to a simple imbalance between spending and revenues. Basically, the federal government is spending more than it’s bringing in, and as a result money has to be borrowed to cover the annual deficit.
Some spends are bigger than others – for example, there has historically been increased spending around national emergencies, like wars or the Great Depression.
More recently, the Foundation reports, the deficits are the results of factors such as rising healthcare costs, and a tax system which ‘does not bring in enough money to pay for what the government has promised its citizens’.
It explains: “The U.S. tax system does not generate enough revenues to cover the spending policymakers have enacted.
“This rapidly growing imbalance between revenues and spending leads to higher and higher annual deficits, and the result is an increasing national debt balance.”
Elon Musk has said it’s ‘critical’ to tackle the debt (X/@elonmusk)
The tracker is constantly updating, but a debt of $36,221,000,000,000 means that in order to pay it off, every single American would have to fork out $106,136 – way more than a year’s wage for a huge number of residents.
Elon Musk shared his thoughts on the nation’s debt after the Foundation’s debt tracker was shared on Twitter, writing: “It is critical to take action on this now.”
It’s worth noting that while many Americans would have to save for years to afford a payment of $106,000, that amount would be a mere fraction of Musk’s $417.4 billion net worth. Essentially pocket change for the world’s richest man – though even he couldn’t afford to cover the cost of America’s debt.
Twitter users have shared their shock at the huge amount of debt America is currently in, with one person writing: “That’s crazy! Cut the spending immediately.”
Another simply commented: “That’s so much debt.”
Interest on the debt is only making the huge figure grow, with the Peter G. Peterson Foundation revealing that the US spends $1.8 billion each day on interest alone. The Foundation also warned that interest will ‘more than double’ from where it is today within just 10 years.
