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This Chart of America’s Per Capita Debt Should Worry You

Feb. 23, 2012 3:40pm Becket Adams

The Senate Budget Committee Republican staff under Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) released this alarming graph Thursday morning:

What does this mean?

Well, as the graph clearly indicates, America’s per capita government debt is worse than that of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece (PIIGS), and France.

Get that? America’s per capita debt is worse than the PIIGS! You know, the countries primarily responsible for pulling the eurozone into financial catastrophe?

And it gets worse. As the Budget Committee notes, under the president’s plan, gross federal debt will reach $75,000 per capita by 2022.

Big deal. How important is this anyway?

Considering that per capita debt is a means of gauging the likelihood of a country’s ability to repay its debts, that is, it helps determine whether a country’s government bonds are at risk of default, we’d say that it’s a pretty big deal.

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Comments (180)

wzskiman
Posted on February 27, 2012 at 1:04pm
Perhaps we should look at the debt per income tax payer return. This excludes those who pay no taxes as you cannot get taxes from those who have no income. There are less than 70 million of us. The federal debt is about $16 trillion or about $225,000 per tax paying return. The average income on those tax paying returns is about $95,000. Thus, a 10% additional tax to pay down the debt would take about 25 years to eliminate the current debt. And this assumes that future federal budgets are balanced.

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m2matarazzo
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 4:17pm
What a big shock, Beck, Cavuto and Bolling have been screaming for a couple of years that we were headed for fiscal insanity, yet our deficit just keeps climbing. Isn’t it scary that we will reduce our military because our entitlements are draining our funds? How did we get to this place?

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Doualezos55
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 3:35pm
This is the wrong metric. The question is what is the percentage of debt related to your income. Let’s say someone makes a million a year and has a mortgage for half a million. He is fine. The guy who makes 20,000 a year and has a loan for 60,000 is in big trouble. Per capita, the first family owns more. So, what? Greece does not have an economy that produces much that other countries want to buy. Will never be able to repay their debt. US is a little different.

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condera
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:58pm
Yes folks, it is going to take a lot to get us out of the pit we have found ourselves in. Yes, Ron Paul is the only candidate who actually proposes cutting spending and whittling down the federal government. The only thing the other three candidates propose is cosmetic to say the least. Change to a different tax scheme and reduce future spending in ten years, which never happens anyhow. So, as I’ve said from the beginning, vote for anyone other than Paul and keep on doing what we have been doing. Well, the only difference is it might take 20 years for the inevitable crash to occur rather than just 10. In that case, I would prefer just keeping IObama in office to keep this fast moving train wreck on pace. Why delay the inevitable? I want to avert it all together, if possible, and that is why I support Paul. Another thing people can do is go sign up with American’s Elect. Ron Paul is leading there right now. But, sign up and begin supporting your own candidate!!!

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Dave of Tennessee
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:24pm
If paring the debt is all you are concerned about, Paul probably is your man. Unfortunatley there is a very dangerous wolrd out there that you cannot, like Paul proposes, ignore. Leaving Iran alone assures a nuclear Iran. Nukes in the hands of Ahmadinejad is a threat that is far beyond dangerous. Even the dimmest bulb on the string can appreciate that conclusion.

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- condera
  Posted on February 24, 2012 at 3:05pm
  Brother, Ron Paul does not propose to ignore it. He proposes to folloow established precedent that has worked. Do you recall what major event transpired in 1983? The Marine Corps barracks in Beiruit was bombed by Hezbollah and we lost more than 230 Marines as a result. Reagan promptly withdrew all focres stating we did not understand their politics. He was correct. But, more importantly, we have not been attacked by Hexbollah since. Why? Because we got out of their business and left them alone. Since surrounding Iran and trying to force them to come to our terms at the barrel of a gun has not, is not, and will not work. It seems to me we need to change our approach. Perhaps pulling back and stopping the meddling, coupled with a stern warning that if you even attempt to develop and utilize nuclear weapons as an offensive weapon against anyone we will respond in kind, they might decide to scrap the idea and begin working with us. Another thing people don’t know. The world built up apparently false intel indicating Sadam Hussein did not have WMD. Even just a couple of days before the invasion, Hussein told one of his allies he did not know why the US was invading because he did not have WMD. We invaded and found none of significance. Theories abound as to what could have possibly happened to them. I have come to believe it was all a smoke screen to garner public support for the war. CONTINUED.
  
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Protoham
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 2:04pm
I noticed this a few day ago when watching TV.

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condera
Posted on February 24, 2012 at 1:58pm
Just for a little clarity, let’s reverse the “per capita” numbers used above. Since we know the population of the US is roughly 331 million people, let’s multiple 331 million times the $44,215 posted in the graph above. My guess is it will be roughly equal to what our national debt is right now. So, 331 million x $44,215 equals $14,635,165,000,000, or approximately the amount of our current total national debt. Amazing how that happens isn’t it.

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