continued…
Results…
If you go to the website http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ you can see the latest figure on the ever climbing National Debt. This is the amount of money that the United States Government has borrowed from some individuals and distributed to other individuals. As of 2004 it is approximately SEVEN TRILLION dollars. I suppose it is at least encouraging that they are keeping track. If anyone has any doubt as to whether or not the government should be involved in redistribution of moneys to some individuals at the expense of others one might suppose this single piece of information should be more than enough to dissuade them. Of course, one would be supposing incorrectly because there seems to be no end in sight. Listen to any politician stumping for election (or re-election) and you will here a litany of contradictory nonsense. Popular gems include lines like, “I am going to lower taxes and increase social security spending”, “I am going to reign in spending on government sponsored health care and provide more prescription drug coverage for poor children and poor elderly people”, and the ever classic, “I am going to lower taxes and increase spending thereby lowering the national debt”.
And even more statistics! As of 2.5.04 the estimated population of the United States is 293,216,044. Therefore each citizen’s share of this debt is $23,870.33. (Which is a misleading calculation considering some citizens are taxed more than others and some citizens have purchased Savings Bonds and other devices which finance the debt while other citizens have not contributed at all, in fact they have only received moneys). The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.69 billion per day since September 30, 2003.
From the U.S. Treasury’s own website is this information:
The total public debt is largely a legacy of war, economic recession, and inflation. It represents the accumulated deficits in the Government’s budgets over the years. The United States first got into debt in 1790 when it assumed the Revolutionary war debts of the Continental Congress. At the end of 1790, the gross public debt was approximately $75 million. For a brief period in the mid-1830′s the public debt was virtually zero. At the start of World War I in 1916, the public debt was $1 billion. It then rose to a peak of $26 billion in 1919 to finance the war. The debt declined for the next decade. During the Great Depression of the 1930′s, however, the debt increased from $16 billion to $42 billion. During the Second World War the public debt rose sharply to a peak of $279 billion in 1946. From its postwar low in 1949, the outstanding public debt grew gradually for nearly the next two decades. Then, beginning at the time of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960′s, the rate of the debt’s increase accelerated sharply.
Source: http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/markets/national-debt.html
Also on this page of the site is this interesting offer:
Question: I would like to make a donation to help pay off the national debt. How do I do it?
Answer: Generally, the Treasury Department believes that individuals fulfill their financial obligation to this country by complying with the tax laws. Any extra measure a citizen wishes to contribute is purely voluntary. The Secretary of the Treasury already has statutory authority to receive gifts for the reduction of the public debt. There is a Treasury account called “Gifts for Reduction of the Public Debt.” Established by Public Law 87-58 in 1961, it provides a way for individuals to make voluntary donations for debt reduction. Persons who wish to contribute may send a letter to that effect enclosing their donation to the Bureau of the Public Debt, Department G, Washington, D.C. 20239-0601. Taxpayers may also make contributions by sending a separate check along with Federal income tax payments. In either case, individuals must make the check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt. Any donations are deductible from taxable income for the year of the donation, subject to any limitations on charitable contributions.
The only way the government can manage this at all is upon the assumption that people will continue to work and make money (produce wealth) that can be taxed. The most effective social system for creation of wealth is of course capitalism. Unfortunately, the government (to great popular support) is engaged in many activities and policies specifically targeted at eliminating as much capitalistic activity as possible. For example, there are Anti-Trust suits and subsidy programs (“We got some money by taxing people that grow and sell food, we’ll give you some of it if you won’t grow and sell any food”).