Right now, America is more than $15.7 Trillion dollars in debt. That's $15,700,000,000,000. Each citizen's stake in that debt is approximately $50,000. And that's if you include the retired and babies. If it's just tax-payers, then it's about $120,000. This is a bad thing. Because that debt is costing America more than $241 billion a year.

Think about that, $241 billion that could have gone to do good, instead simply goes to servicing the debt. In essence, evaporating from the useful economy.

How much is $241 billion? Let me put it this way, with that money you could fund the discretionary funding of the following Departments (2012 budgets):

- NASA: 18 billion.
- Environmental protection agency: 10 billion.
- National Science Foundation: 7 billion
- Department of Commerce: 11 billion
- Department of Labour: 13 billion
- Department of Justice: 24 billion
- Department of Energy: 42 billion
- Department of Agriculture: 27 billion
- Small Business Administration: 1 billion
- Corporation for National and Community service: 1 billion
- Department of the interior: 13 billion
- Department of the Treasury: 14 billion
- Department of Homeland security: 46 billion

And that still leaves $20 billion to spare. You can blame Bush, you can blame Obama, you can Blame Clinton, you can blame the first Bush. The truth is that they're all guilty. US public debt was flat since World War two before exploding in the 80s, and it hasn't let up. This isn't a problem of politicians but of the people who elect them, whether Republican or Democrat, both parties supporters were happy to keep supporting a party that spent them into the ground without a thought for the consequences.

The only question is how long you can keep going as the cost of servicing that debt grows and grows. Paying off this debt is going to take generations. And maybe that's what it's about: generations. This is a problem that the generations in power now has caused by selling their own children and grandchildren's futures in the interest of feathering their own nests. Right now every new graduate comes out of university laden with debt, into an economy of low paid jobs to work to pay for healthcare and retirement of a generation that despite selling their children's futures still hasn't managed to put anything away.

I'm not sure what the point of discussion here is, I don't see any solutions (though I'd love to hear any ideas). Frankly I'm just disgusted and pissed off by the stupid selfish short sighted thinking that got us into this mess.