The Federal Government owns nearly 650 million acres of land - almost 30 percent of the land area of the United States. Federally-owned and managed public lands include National Parks, National Forests, and National Wildlife Refuges.
Figure about $500 to $4000 per acre depending on location.
Less for the deep woods in Alaska.
IOW, not even close to the $45K of debt, as most of the land is in the lower range per acre. The Census reports US population at 307 million as of July 2009.
That’s about 2.3 acres per cap. Net per cap US land value ballpark $1K to $10K.
it is actually worse than that. The government has partnered with corporations and private land owners to purchase different rights from the bundle of rights you get from fee ownership. Rights like access rights, building rights etc. These are called conservation easements. Half of the U.P. in Michigan is under one.
I think you could pay off the national debt. just by selling off the Presidio in downtown San Francisco right under the Golden Gate bridge.
You should start with the Green River Formation and its 800,000,000 and 1,000,000,000 barrels of recoverable oil! Yes, 1 TRILLION BARRELS!
http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/oilshale/
“...More than 70% of the total oil shale acreage in the Green River Formation, including the richest and thickest oil shale deposits, is under federally owned and managed lands...”