368,283,619 years is the amount of time it would take for a person to pay off the Federal debt ($16,012,971,761,294.54) if that person was earning the average hourly wage in the U.S. of $21.74/hour (source: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000) and worked 2,000 hours per year (50 weeks, 40 hours a week).
If that number of years doesn't sound staggering, it is roughly one twelfth the age of the Earth.
What if we put the entire work force of the US (128,278,550 people) to work on the debt?
Let's also say that everyone stopped eating, stopped paying for their houses and cars, stopped getting sick, stopped paying student loans, stopped paying for insurance, gasoline, everything. They dedicated 100% of their income to paying off the debt.
Let's also say that the debt stops growing and the US government stops all spending including running the military, and declares that all treasury bonds, notes, and bills will from this day forward pay 0% interest.
In that case, the debt could be paid off in only 2.87 years.
All we have to do is roll up our sleeves, stop eating, and shut down the federal government for 3 years and we can clear up this little debt problem.
I say we let one person do all the work and then 60 years later we should have the technology to replace that person with a robot that can work the additional 368,283,559 years.
ReplyDeleteNow all we need is a volunteer! ;)
Broken link. Let's try that again.
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteMaybe we could work off the debt with a few million Roombas.
But how long would it take to pay off private sector debt? 4 or 5 times as long, maybe.
ReplyDeleteThe Arthurian,
ReplyDeleteYes, total domestic non-financial debt is much larger than the national debt, for now. Private debt is a huge drag on consumption and saving. Debts are so huge, they are almost unimaginable. Sigh.