HOW I GOT HERE

My wife and I are senior citizens on fixed income.  We have ten grandchildren.  Sooner or later they will have to deal with this crushing national debt, and it won’t be pretty.  As the debt has increased exponentially over the years, it has plagued me to find something that I, as one individual, might be able to do to make a difference.  It occurred to me that none of our elected officials (and very few voters) really understand just how much $1,000,000,000,000 (One Trillion) really is.  Here is the scoop:

“How many years would it take to pay off ONE TRILLION $$$ (with no interest) at $1.00 per minute?”

The correct answer?  1,902,587.52 years.

          YEP.   OVER 1.9 MILLION YEARS AT $1.00 PER MINUTE

Over the last several years, I have quizzed hundreds of people with the question quoted above.  The answers vary wildly.  Most folks under age 20 guess between 20 and 200 years.  Age 20 to 40?  Sometimes they guess as high as 1,000 years.  Older folks may go as high as 10,000 years on rare occasion.  I actually had the opportunity to give the quiz to three Federal Government Economists whom I ran into at a restaurant recently.  They all guessed less than 1,000 years.

I believe that if elected officials, and more importantly the folks who elect them, fully appreciate the huge negative impact that our national debt is having on our nation, the decision makers will try their best to rein in our annual deficit and eventually pay down the debt.