STORM2K

Here are some U.S. debt statistics I threw together. For anyone who may think the debt is a joke (or just can't grasp how large $17T is), this might be eye opening...for the rest who like statistics, you might find it interesting to glance at.

The first set is based off the 2010 Census.

It assumes:
*That the population of U.S. citizens 15+ stays the same.
*Debt levels off at $17.0 Trillion
*A budget is passed every year that is perfectly balanced, it does not have a surplus or deficit

Debt:
$17,000,000,000,000

U.S. Citizens 15+:
247,518,325

Amount each 15+ citizen pays each year, strictly toward the debt:
$500.00

Total yearly amount collected:
$123,759,162,500

Years it would take to pay off the debt:
137.364 years

The second (and much more frightening) set deals with if the U.S. decided to sell acres of land, to pay off the debt. How many acres would it take to reach $17.0 Trillion, and at what prices? What states would we have to loose?

Debt:
$17,000,000,000,000

Total U.S. land in acres:
2,263,000,000

Debt per acre of land:
$7512.15/acre

If we sell every acre for $500,000:
34,000,000 acres to pay off the debt, or 1.50% of the U.S.

Every acre sold for $100,000:
170,000,000 acres to pay off the debt, or 7.51% of the U.S.

375,000,000 acres in Alaska not suitable for agriculture production:
$45,333.33/acre in exchange for debt

California is 103,000,000 acres:
$165,048.54/acre

Montana is 94,000,000 acres:
$180,851.06/acre

Oregon is 60,000,000 acres:
$283,333.33/acre

Maine is 20,000,000 acres:
$850,000.00/acre

The most frightening statistic is also the most plausible out of the land selling group:

If we sold land for $10,000/acre:
1,700,000,000 acres to pay off the debt, or 75.12% of the U.S.

No country would buy land for $800,000 or $500,000 an acre, which is why I state the $10,000/acre is most plausible.

Comments?

Too close to politics, me thinks.

Haha, I kept politics out of it! Just some interesting statistics, in my opinion.

The first statistic caught my eye and reminded me of the person that only pays the minimum on the credit card. I guess at the very least, the debt would be paid off.

The land sale is not something that would even be plausibly real to me, so yeah, interesting but pretty darn pathetic if we would have to consider something like that.

Indeed, but realistically, even $500 a year per person may be a stretch. Many, many people in the U.S. are living pay check to pay check, so an additional $500 a year ontop of the taxes taken out already might crash quite a few people. Maybe the rich people would decide to give a little more to drop the $500 for the bottom 10%.

As far as the land sale goes, what is being held as collateral on the debt? I honestly do not know. I do know when a lot of people claim bankruptcy, the banks come in and collect things, like your car, house, etc. Foreign countries aren't going to go "Oh, you can't pay us the $6T you owe us? That's okay, better luck next time!", they are going to demand *something* in return...I just don't know what, and land is the first thing that comes to my mind. Get "X" amount of land in exchange for "X" amount of the debt.

You have a point there with the collateral.