Obama's Debt Slaves - 873,846

America's Debt = Moral Failure, p.2

Obama and his liberal friends in Congress have subjected 873,846 Americans to lifelong slavery this year. I'll explain this "new American slavery" in a moment.

An old biblical proverb says that the "borrower is servant to the lender."  And, as all of us know, our deficit (the amount we're spending beyond what we're taking in) was $1.42 trillion dollars in 2009.  Our national debt (accumlated deficits from this and all previous years) is pushing $12 trillion, and there are $55 trillion in entitlement promises yet to be fulfilled.

The proposed fix: "cut the deficit in half over four years."  What?  So you run up a $1.5 trillion dollar credit card bill this year - with the promise that in future years you'll only run it up $750 billion?  That's not fiscal disipline, that's insanity.  And, I might add, it's a lie.  Nothing our government is doing now will lead to a reduction in deficits.  Everything on Congress' agenda is about higher costs, higher taxes, higher spending and more regulations.

There's no intention to repay this debt, which is why I believe it represents one of the greatest moral failures in American history (see p.1 of this series); a national sin akin to the slave trade.

For short-term political gain and to feed the ever-growing entitlement class, liberal politicians are enslaving you and I, and our kids, to mountains of debt that will weigh us down years after their reign of rhetoric-driven spending.  (Yes, yes, the Republicans are guilty too.  The Bush years saw some big deficits and new entitlements, and they are partly to blame for this year's deficit - to the tune of hundreds of billions.  But Obama and Congressional Democrats have taken things to a new level.)  

Consider: this fiscal year (2009), the government sunk $1.42 trillion dollars further in the hole.  Let's imagine that, long term, the interest on that debt is around 4%.  (And that low number could rise if confidence in our government falters).

$1,420,000,000,000 x 4% = $56,800,000,000 ($56.8 billion)

So next year, the IRS will need to collect $56.8 billion more in taxes, representing the hard work of thousands of Americans, just to pay for this year's overspending.  And, sadly, all of that work, sweat, and creativity will be taxed away from thousands of people - and it won't even pay one dime of the principal on the debt.  It will just pay the interest - meaning that the next year, another $56,800,000,000 will be required as well.  

It gets worse.  Obama's deficit for next year will be another astronomical figure, especially if he gets his wishes for vast new government health care, more "stimulus spending," energy and immigration policies.  So, that $1+ trillion deficit in the following year will add another $50,000,000,000 ongoing burden to the U.S. taxpayers.  

And all of this, on top of the $400 billion we're already spending on debt interest.  Within a few years, debt interest will be the largest single expense of the U.S. government, literally, the biggest "bill" in history.  And the bill will keep coming, and keep growing.  And not one cent of our massive payments will pay off the principal.

Where do these mounting billions go? Into the pockets of the debt-owners, the new American taskmasters.  Some of them are private citizens, some of them are banks and holding companies, some of them are foreign governments.  My argument isn't with them - after all, without bond-buyers, the U.S. government would be in real trouble.  But at the end of the day, the result is that tax-and-overspend economics will increasingly become tax-to-pay-interest economics.  The government will require more and more of our money (and thus, our liberty), and will be able to provide less and less in return for it.

Now, what about these 873,846 debt slaves?  

Here's the logic (I pray to God my math is wrong here, so please correct me if you can):

The overwhelming debt and interest numbers don't just represent extra zeros on a government spreadsheet, they represent hard work, the productivity and innovation of American industries, the career dreams of your children - all subjected to the despair of endless debt. It means that the equivalent of nearly a million American citizens will forfeit their income and receive absolutely nothing in return.  I call that slavery.  

An average American worker produces about $65,000 in value annually.  Obama and his friends will need the productivity of 873,846 lifelong, full-time debt slaves just to pay interest on this year's addition to the national debt.  

Realistically, interest rates will probably go up in the future, as the government will need to attract more buyers for its growing debts.  At 5.5% average interest (it was almost 5% in 07-08), we'd spend $80 billion a year on the interest on this year's debt alone, enslaving the equivalent of 1.2 million Americans for the long-term.  And, if the rate were to tick up to 6.5%, we'd be looking at more than 1.4 million debt slaves.

That's a whole lot of slaves, many of whom voted for "hope and change."  

Added to the pile of debt we already have, and the vast projections of debt stemming from Obama's spending proposals, we're looking at ten million+ debt slaves within a couple of years.  And for what?

You do the math.  A new American slavery indeed.

* In the original post of this material, I was working off of projected numbers that ended up being higher than the government's report, issued October 16th.  I corrected the math accordingly in the post above.  And while the "good news" is that the budget deficit was less than I'd figured - thus fewer debt slaves, the "bad news" is the equivalent of 873,846 American workers will labor their entire year away in 2010, just to pay debt interest from 2009.  And then they'll need to jump right in and keep working hard in 2011, and 2012, and 2025, and...

Comments

[DanJ]

One question to ponder here is whether or not the labors of 873,846 Americans is worth what we got for the debt we incurred.

These debt figures include the bank bailout (TARP) and the Recovery Act (stimulus)+ a range of dramatic overspending on just about everything.

We could argue the consequences of government inaction during the financial meltdown, I suppose - but that's water under the bridge. Right now, I wonder, since times seem to be improving - will we enact a plan to pay back our 1.42 trillion dollar deficit? Or will we leave it sitting there to drain the wealth of future generations?

If we don't pay it off, I think my slavery argument stands. We "fixed" a temporary problem with a permanent one.