U.S. Debt at Breaking Point..

Most folk who pause to look up at the "National Debt Clock" on Sixth Avenue pause for much longer than the time it takes to count the number of zeroes! And, when they do look back down, their faces remind you of someone who has just heard a grim prognosis from their doctor!

Even if the US economy was booming, and the US taxpayers were all 'doing well', that figure on the clock would still represent a multi-generational problem!
The whole world knows the US taxpayers are NOT 'doing well' and that 14 Trillion dollars will become a tragedy.

Factors that are about to make the problem even worse..

• Bankrupt Cities and States and the inevitable layoffs and cuts to State budgets.
• Rising taxes in those bankrupt States.
• Multiple millions of Foreclosures and the related housing slump.
• Massive layoffs from Congressional attempts to cut the deficit.
Eg. In the Defense department. Many of the soldiers returning from overseas duty will need to be retrenched!
• The end of QE2 (the 2nd photo-copy run of a trillion plus dollars)
There are times when "printing money" is needed to break a depression fear cycle. It provides an illusion of growth which eases peoples fears. The problem is that the main consumer fear was that US Debt was too high and too much money had already been printed! Obviously, photo-copying more only heightened consumer fears! The inevitable end of QE2 will fade that illusion of growth and consumer fears will become self-fulfilling. Many believe it was the "end of a QE2" in 1937 that triggered the final collapse of that "Great Depression".
• Expiring unemployment benefits for millions of people will further dampen consumer spending. Also, there is the dead-weight of millions of "Once were taxpayers" who have already dropped out of the "looking for work" category and are therefore not counted in the unemployment stats. (The real unemployment figure is close to 18%)
• The worsening ratio of Taxpayers to Welfare dependent folk.
There used to be 20 taxpayers to support each welfare dependent person (1960s). There are now only four! The burden is already alarming, and the retiring 'baby boomers' are going to push it beyond breaking point!

We are already passing so many bad legacies on to our children - like decimated oil reserves, decimated fish stocks, decimated top-soil, decimated wildlife species, decimated forests, pollution and rising oceans.
What an embarrassing legacy! - Imagine, at the reading of our will.. "To my children, I also bequeath my 20 trillion dollar debt!"
At all costs, we must not pass on this massive debt to our children.

[see article on The National Debt]