Before we delve into our nation's supposedly out-of-control deficit spending, and the forecasted end of our fiscal lives - by the time we all reach the age of 45 - let's start out by asking what the big deal is about being a few billion dollars in debt.
Americans all seem to get mesmerized, and traumatized, by the big scary numbers handed to us by Washington economists and CNBC talking heads. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was an absolute genius at putting the American public to sleep with his voluminous verbiage about what may or may not be excessive or depressive exuberance. You only need to broaden your perspective just a bit to notice that according to the U.S. Census Bureau, about one out of every 20 people on this planet (about 6 billion total) live in the United States, but that it contains about 3/4 of all of the world's assets. We also create about half of the world's income and 1/3 of the world's production every single year. But why try to deal with that when you get enough in Econ class every day?
Forget the endless diatribes of government-speak and conspiracy theorists' cries for a return to the gold standard; we just need to convert to a Daily Personal Cost standard. Henceforth, all government budgets, surpluses (yeah, right) and deficits should all be simply stated in terms of DPC to each of us.
If the government would collect an extra $3.33 from every woman, child and man (listed by descending order of emotional maturity) in the United States, it could raise about $1 billion within the span of a year. That would result in only about a penny-a-day burden on Americans.
Relating to that finding, the proposed DPC will prove that it will just take a few small stacks of those pennies to hold off the screaming hordes of national and international creditors and push the end-of-times scenario out past the end of our times - at least. Also, the DPC could also be used to solve any financial crunches that are not foreseen.
For example: If you divide the U.S. Gross Domestic Product ($11.75 trillion) by the population (about 300,000,000) that would mean that every day a single person will produce about $100 of goods and services. Come on, how tough will it be to say that every day we import $8 more than we export?
Even though our federal budget deficit (i.e. credit card balance) has gone up to an estimated $27,000 for each citizen, the government just needs $3.25 a day for the interest-only payments on those cards, and we can cover that easily out of the average $10 a day we pay for income taxes. You see, there are no minimum monthly balance payments or penalties for Uncle Sam. He writes all the loans and prints all the money, so who is going to cut up all of his cards?
Sure the war in Iraq could end up costing each of us a whopping $1,000, but then again, we will still only have to pay $2.75 interest annually to make the world safe again from weapons of mass destruction. Even if you give credence to the argument that the D should stand for Deception
we will still have to pay less than what we do for one coffee latte from Perks.
The best part about all this budget bubble bursting is that we are being kept flush in the poker game by our trade partners, but not in the way you would expect.
According to the CIA Factbook, nearly 18 percent of our trading is done with Canada, versus only 14 percent with China. But when it comes to getting refinanced for our ever-increasing credit card debt, nearly half comes from China. They sell us trinkets and we give them paper markers. Who do you think has the house advantage in this game?
If you want people to take very good care of you, just owe them a few hundred-billion dollars. How can they hope to win if you don't? Even if all the deficit forecasts turn out to be wildly off the mark, thanks to the new DPC standard you will also know that it's just pennies to you and me.
- Jessica Beinecke is a freshman journalism major. Send her an e-mail at jb275005@ohiou.edu. 17
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Jessica Beinecke
