US Budget Numbers Simplified To The Household Level

Someone sent this to me via e-mail, and I don’t know the original source. From the $38.5 trillion number, that seems to refer to the budget cut deal that averted a US government shutdown in April 2011. In any case, it does make the numbers much more easy to grasp.

Some stats about the US government:

U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000National debt: $14,271,000,000,000Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Now, remove 8 zeroes and pretend it’s a household budget:

Annual family income: $21,700Money the family spent: $38,200New debt on the credit card: $16,500Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710Total budget cuts: $385

I know that this is macroeconomics vs. microeconomics. But the orders of magnitude are correct, and it can’t look good to anybody. I’ve never really liked the macroeconomics theory that it’s okay for governments to carry huge amounts of debt as long as it’s “only” a certain percentage of GDP. The idea is that you’ll grow your way out of it.

Now, I’m more of a microeconomics guy. I try to figure out the rules of the game and play it the best that I can. I avoid getting emotionally involved in things that I view are out of my control. But to me, it just seems like all the politicians ever do is kick the can down the road. You can’t do that forever.

Find more in Taxes | 10/14/11, 5:00am | Trackback

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