$3 Trillion…

This year, the Federal GOvernment is spending about $3 Trillion…

Since the Federal Government is just all of us US citizens all added together, and there are about 300 million of us this means that they are spending $10,000 for each man, woman and child in America.   So, for the average family of 4, the government has decided to spend $40,000…

Now the only way to collect this money is through taxes and even though we pay high taxes (at least the top 10% pays a lot of taxes) we are not paying enough to cover the spending that the government has decided is essential to spend on our behalf.  The amount of taxes collected is about $1.2 Trillion which is $4,000 for every man, woman and child in America ($16,000 for a family of four)

To recap, for a family of four:

They spend in our name $40,000
They collect in taxes from us $16,000
They borrow (deficit spending) from our future ability to spend $24,000…

So, even though Americans are getting rid of personal debts and credit cards at the fastest pace in history, the Federal government is borrowing on our behalf $24,000 each family THIS YEAR.  By the end of the next ten years, we will each be another $200,000 per family in further debt…

This is unsustainable. And the government has no good options to get out of the situation.  They can only confiscate so much wealth from the private sector– there is only so much productivity and income available.  If they try to cut back in any way on spending, interest groups howl because they want the money.  And they have the audacity to want to add even more huge bloated government programs on top of the ones that we already can’t afford.

We live in interesting times.