With a report out Tuesday that the US federal debt went up an amazing $2-trillion dollars in 2010, we have to look at the whole pile of indebtedness and wonder what each of us really owes.
Since the debt is $13.473 trillion, the easy thing to do would be to look at the current U.S. population from the Census Bureau's population clock here, and figure the easy answer would be each and every American is on the hook for $43,390 and change.
But, it's not that simple. Instead, we have to apply a bit of logic here: Should we expect retired people to pay? How would that be possible, since most are living on the cheap and have no money left over. What about children? Do you think it's right to hit a grade-schooler with a 44-thousand dollar debt?
Nope. That wouldn't be fair at all, so let's do a little different calculation using just the few people who are still employed in America.
If we drop by the U.S. Department of Labor’s employment data for the most recent month, we discover the number of people in the workforce and holding a job, was 138.888 million.
Now, if we look at working people - since we're the ones who have to eat the debt pile, the amount of federal debt per worker is: $97,011.
For a country which has spouted Land of the Free!, something's just not adding up right. This seems to call into question the Home of the Brave! part, too, but let's not think about this stuff too deeply.
Oh...so sorry,.my bad: Apparently, we don't.