I'm not one of those folks who thinks having a $8,083,374,482,184.25 (as of 11/17/2005) debt is a good thing. Despite the fact that as a percentage of GDP, the number isn't too far outside of the historical average, it
still isn't something that we should just say, "oh well, it's always been like this", and not worry about it.
It is a fact that in order to maintain spending at current levels, the government has to borrow from equity markets in order not to run out of money. It is also a fact that in just October of this year, the government had to pay $18,803,709,320.82 in interest on this debt. Further, for fiscal year 2005, $352,350,252,507.90 was spent on interest to cover this debt. This means that more than $350 Billion dollars of our tax money was not spent to pave one road, to fund the needs of a single soldier out in the field, or do any of the other countless things that the government has (rightly or wrongly) committed itself to do.
Put another way, you can add up all income taxes from the following states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming and dedicate every single dollar paid in income taxes to nothing but paying interest and you'd still be $10Billion short. (Source: IRS.Gov)
There is something deeply wrong about that.
it still isn't something that we should just say, "oh well, it's always been like this", and not worry about it....Some people choose to worry and complain and some people enjoy solving problems and putting things in order. You made a big list of things to worry about so you must be in the sad problem group and not the happy solution group. You're free to worry your brains out if you really want. While you're at it, you can even worry about the fact that you're going to die, everyone in the US is going to die, and the sun is going to explode and destroy the earth.
FWIW your attitude is not only pathological, it's also a burden to others. I believe that God is Good, and to spend a life choosing misery is a sin. Let me know if you ever decide to enjoy life.
I'm not one of those folks who thinks having a $8,083,374,482,184.25 (as of 11/17/2005) debt is a good thing. Despite the fact that as a percentage of GDP, the number isn't too far outside of the historical average, it still isn't something that we should just say, "oh well, it's always been like this", and not worry about it. True. The most worrisome thing about the debt is not its current level as a percentage of GDP. It's the fact that it is rising on the eve of the Boomer retirement. The following graph shows our government's long-run projections for the public debt, taken from the most recently released budget:
The actual numbers and sources are at http://home.att.net/~rdavis2/pro2006.html. As can be seen, the public debt is projected to reach 250% of GDP by 2075. This is more than double the high that it reached at the end of the World War II.
Of course, nobody knows for sure what the future level of the public debt will be. But as long as the government is projecting financial disaster for the next generation, it needs to be working on some plan to avoid it.