What % of GDP? Compare that to the debt of the 80's it's a smaller percentage..
That's dangerous. Perhaps we should pass a law saying, "all persons born on or after January 1, 1956 shall be ineligible for any Social Security benefits whatsoever; however, they shall be liable to make appropriate contributions to the system as if they would have been eligible for benefits."
Not the GDP, but I think I had read recently that the total economy of the US is 45 trillion dollars. National debt is 16.4%.
Not great, but if my debt to asset ratio were the same I wouldn't feel too bad.
What % of GDP? Compare that to the debt of the 80's it's a smaller percentage..
The current GDP is $11,657.5 billion.
The current percentage is 63.6%.
Historically, the nominal GDP from 1980 to 1989, the public debt from the same years, and the percentage of debt to GDP for those years:
| Year | GDP | Public debt | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 2,789.5 | 930.2 | 33.3% |
| 1981 | 3,128.4 | 1,028.7 | 32.8% |
| 1982 | 3,255.0 | 1,197.0 | 36.7% |
| 1983 | 3,536.7 | 1,410.7 | 39.9% |
| 1984 | 3,933.2 | 1,662.9 | 42.3% |
| 1985 | 4,220.3 | 1,945.9 | 46.1% |
| 1986 | 4,462.8 | 2,125.3 | 47.6% |
| 1987 | 4,739.5 | 2,350.2 | 49.6% |
| 1988 | 5,103.8 | 2,602.3 | 51.0% |
| 1989 | 5,484.4 | 2,857.4 | 52.1% |
The percentages for all years in the 1980s are less than the current figure of 63.6%.
The current figure of 63.6% is considered an indicator of moderate to severe indebtedness by objective standards, such as those published by the World Bank. (See my profile for more about this subject. The short version is our debt is too large, and we need to cut our spending.)