USA Dominates The Rest of World—In Debt

Monty Pelerin / EconomicNoise.com

The US continues to decline economically relative to some parts of the world, most notably those in Asia. Yet we still lead in many areas. Unfortunately being number one is some categories is not a good thing.

The level of debt is one of these areas. Our debt burden leads the world. The first chart below shows that three years ago we led in terms of per capita debt. We nosed out the Eurozone basket cases, our biggest competitors for this questionable title.

Given the problems these European countries have had since, one might reasonably expect that they would surpass us. Not so! We, not they, are the true profligates. The second chart shows our widening lead and dominance. The nearest competitors have fallen way behind as we surged. Even the “mighty” Greece cannot keep pace with our additions of new debt.

Trillion dollar deficits per year increased our debt per person about $3,000 per person per year. Four more years of Obama deficits will leave each person’s share of the debt at $70,000.

That means a family of four would owe $280,000, of which they are totally unaware. This debt is in addition to whatever credit card, auto, mortgage, etc. debt they owe.

These numbers do not take into account the unfunded liabilities associated with Social Security and Medicare. That’s where the numbers get especially ugly.