$9 TRILLION IS MEANINGLESS

[Jeffersons Ghost]

How many zeros are in $9 TRILLION, which will be our new national debt when Congress returns?

000000000000
Even at lofty in-the-know leftest sites, like DU, the average reader can't answer that very timely question I suspect. For those mathematically inclined, please tell me my share of the new total. I need to figure out another way to pay it off. Earlier, I read my part was $43,000, which was going to be a problem, but our government borrowed a lot more since I saw that information and I just can't afford the interest.

You can certainly believe all those zeros are lost on Jack and Jill sixpack who insist on wearing a cross when they adorn themselves in tin-foil hats of paranoia. 35 to 40% of average America still refuses to admit they are wrong and continues to mentally dodge responsibility for the biggest mistakes in U.S. history. By believing it will all end before their kids get stuck with their tab, they can postpone economic Armageddon but not the Judgment of their children...



The tab on the debt is coming earlier than they think. Even as modern doomsday predictors pass themselves off as prophets to stalk the flock for their share of the loot, our economy screeches to a halt as inflation runs rampant. Heavy trading on Wall Street likely shows the elite switching around assets in mind-boggling ways before shipping it overseas.

As rank and file fundamentally evangelistic believers predict, however, the end is near!:nuke: While I hate to rain on these modern prophets that claim to speak for God, I do have some bad news before it does: all that is ending is our freedom and way of life. So let's all huddle and wait for Apocalypse, as the Republican Party continues to pillage the traditional legacy all of our children deserve.

[Richard D]

1. A trillion dollars . . .

. . . is a stack of 100 dollar bills . . . 77 miles high.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. there's some imagery for "jack and jill."

this stack of hundreds isn't nearly 77 MILES HIGH but maybe if we all throw in our houses we can pay off our share of the $9 TRILLION.

[oneighty]

2. Nine trillion (9,000,000,000,000) miles

is the distance light travels in one and a half years, equlivant to spending $186,000 a second for 36 months.

180

[oneighty]

10. 18 months stupid

darn.

180

[rurallib]

3. What is really scary is that the yearly interest

on 9T at 5% is what ? 450,000,000,000. That seems almost unreal but my eyes go screwy reading all the 0s. If my calculation is right that means debt service is nearly the equal of the military budget. On a 2.8T budget, debt service will take @20% of the budget.
I have long felt that the way the repubs are going 'to shrink gummint so you can drown it in a bathtub' will be to run the debt so high that debt service and military are the only ones who can get money. Tell me a congressman besides Kucinich who would vote against the military with the 'war on terra' happening.

[acmejack]

5. That is exactly what these madmen are doing.

impoverished serfs taxed to to their last nickle as tribute to their government. A historical recipe for ill will toward the crown, but this time the crown has all the technological advantage.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. tech advantages are over-rated and, at least for now, a two-edged sword

Your absolutely right in the rest of this analysis, though, acmejack. They're trying to work America to death and even snatch the meager overgrazed retirement pasture of Social Security. Historically it takes a while but the masses always catch on eventually. Nothing controls people forever. Humans become savagely animistic when oppressors turn up the economic heat. grrrr, I'm feeling more vicious already.

[coalition_unwilling]

6. I don't think it's a coincidence that financial services industry

now accounts for 21% of annual GDP, while manufacturing accounts for only 14%.

We're like Great Britain in the waning days of its empire (but without the class), engaged in symbolic manipulation, whether it be finance or entertainment, but not bothered much by production that meets people's real needs.

A trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon you're talking real money :)

[no_hypocrisy]

8. $43 trillion is the sum of the national debt, the trade deficit, consumer

debt, totaled mortgages, compound interest on those debts, etc. The bad news is that the United States does not have that amount in assets (currency, realty, chattel, bonds, stocks, etc.) at this time. That kinda says bankruptcy to me.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

9. not if we all do our part

I've dug around and put together $53.61 for my part of next month's payment. Is that enough? If we work together we might still avoid letting our country go bankrupt.