The 10 biggest reasons we're in debt
Despite recent belt-tightening, US consumers still owe plenty. Here are the top sources of personal debt, and how such borrowing affects your finances and the economy.
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The biggest debt is the one we didn't make. The national debt. Not one of us signed for this debt. I think lawmakers should shoulder the blame for that. They should be forced to sell whatever they have and pay on the debt. Their bank accounts and any pensions should be seized and paid on the debt. I do not think we should have to pay that. We didn't sign for it. Now, the next sore issue is the medical debt. When you go to a doctor, then to the legal drug lords you get more side effects, more docs, then more pills, more side effects, more docs...then hospital. Get one scan and you get bills from ten other people you never heard of. One did the scan, one read it in anohter town, one interpreted it, and one wiped his ash on it, one sent it back to doc, ...you get bills from all of them! I hope the Chinese foreclose on America and take over the operations of the whole country! Send idiot congress home!
National debt is $16.8 trillion and growing. A "temporary" lifting of the debt ceiling allows the national debt to grow without limit. Will the U.S. Congress and President keep authorizing "temporary" liftings of the debt ceiling until it becomes de facto permanent?
What about unfunded liabilities of the U.S. Government? They amount to $100 to $222 trillion, but because the U.S. Governement does not follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) that every business has to follow, no one knows about the huge problem of unfunded liabilities. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and foreign wars make up a large amount of this.
Annual budget deficit is typically $1.1 to $1.3 trillion per year out of a $3.5 trillion budget (and growing).
$802 billion for Medicare and Medicaid
$768 billion for Social Security
$670 billion for Defense
$615 billion for "discretionary" government programs
$461 billion for other "mandatory" government programs
$223 billion for interest on the national debt
Families get into financial trouble when they spend too much.
So do countries, even big and prosperous countries like the United States of America.
Is there anyone who has read this article/slideshow, who knows the ins and outs of health insurance that can provide the answers to:
Is there a type of health insurance that covers everything?
Is it possible to cover everything?
How could the U.S. go about having better health care and health insurance for the future?
Is there any stock in wellness programs through your employer?
P.S. I'm thankful to everyone who did their part in paying down credit card debt.
The Too Big To Fail (or Jail) banks are currently gambling on highly leveraged financial instruments called derivatives. The value of these derivatives are in the range of several hundred trillion dollars to one quadrillion dollars, many times greater than the world GDP.
What happens when one of these Too Big To Fail (or Jail) banks fails? Even if the Federal Reserve were to print money to bail out these banks, it would cause massive hyperinflation.
Fascinates me that they include mortgage debt in this because it's considered to be the only kind that is "good". My wife is from China and they abhor debt, tending to pay cash whenever possible for everything. With rates this low I've encouraged her to learn to live with using OPM to expand wealth as long as we are capable of repaying the debt. We only have mtg debt and are proud of that fact. It's still difficult because it's a large payment.
Consumers should learn to pay in full when ever possible and to hell with the banks and lenders. It's time this country retrench and learn to cover it's expenses and that includes the gov't. Of course I am preaching to the choir here. We all know that gov't is totally out of control at all levels in terms of spending. What direct benefit do you or I actually derive from the government? The middle class is dying and it's only going to get worse as we are taxed into oblivion in order to fund bridges to no where, airports that serve ONLY ONE COMPANY, studies on why 3 year olds fall off beds, etc. While there is some importance to some projects much of what the gov't spends on is nonsensical. The biggest thing is that now we're going to sign on the dotted line to support Afghanistan, WHY? They didn't exactly welcome us to get the Taliban out, and aren't exactly nice to us now...they want our $$$ CAPITAL. This is where the US has to tighten it's belt and begin to take care of it's own first. PEACE!
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