Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / The National Debt Just Hit $40 Trillion. Here's Why It Matters.
Transcript
- Malcolm: Yeah, by the way, we are adding like we have we are the US national debt has topped a record forty trillion dollars. Thomas: Okay. Malcolm: our debt burden is riding faster than estimates just a few years ago. it's exacerbated by persistent deficits and soaring interest payment. The national debt continues to rise, adding nearly seven billion dollars each day. forty trillion is one billion, forty thousand times over. so if the United States were to pay one billion of debt each day. It would take nearly 110 years to pay it off. At a million dollars per day, it will take nearly 110,000 per year. So a list of comparisons to put into perspective how large national debt has become. There are roughly 343 million people in the United States. That's roughly 117,000 per American. it is double the size of the national debt in 2016. In twenty August 2016, the national debt was just below 20 trillion. In the past decade, it has doubled to forty trillion. and a lot of this is because of unsustainable borrowing on the scale. it's had huge repercussions throughout the economy and has strained efforts to address affordability and risking a dangerous debt spiral if lawmakers do not act. So the US government owes forty point zero three trillion dollars. Wow. We are fried. That's worth more Thomas: We're so Malcolm: than the world's five hundred richest people combined. That's That's more than the total value of all gold ever mined. That's more than seven Nvidia's. More than 300 international space stations. It's larger. The debt our debt is larger than the actual US economy. It's it's larger than the US economy. It's larger than the next five, the next five biggest economies combined. It is double the total US household debt. And it is approaching the total value of US retirement savings. The total value of retirement assets in the United States. Was 47.6 trillion in the first quarter of this year. So we're about to reach a point where our debt has eclipsed any type of retirement savings that anyone has. What are we going to do when Social Security runs out? That's my question. Because they have no problem taking it out of my paycheck every single, every every every couple of weeks. I'm like, what happens when that runs out? Like, are we just fried when it's time for us? Thomas: I think yeah, that's why you kinda you can't rely on the government to save you when it comes that. That's what people need to retire or save their own retirement, right? You can't the government dependence, the the debt and look, I have this pulled up right here, some some AI website. This is respect to whoever made this. This is this is vibe coded for sure. couldn't tell you what model, but this is the yeah. so in seventeen ninety it was seventy five million dollars, right? We actually have people who could pay off the US debt themselves with flick of a a finger, if that was it. And then w this is the only time we were ever at debt three was eighteen thirty-five. Like the said Andrew Jackson pays off the debt Malcolm: eighteen thirty five. Wow. Thomas: almost two hundred years ago. Right. Honestly, I don't even know. I think he didn't pay it off. I thought he just said like there is no more debt. Or how did that happen? Like didn't he just say like we're not paying anybody back? Malcolm: I don't know, that was low key aura though. Thomas: Like I almost wanna see Andrew Jackson. Malcolm: He Thomas: US debt. So it says he paid it off, but okay, he cut spending, sold public land, and abolished the national bank. Good gracious. Malcolm: Sounds pretty extreme. Thomas: Yeah. I mean he took the debt to zero, but then wars and yeah, w how do we go from eighteen sixty, sixty five million into that to two point seven billion in eighteen sixty six? Mind you, I I don't know if this website is factual, but just kind of gives you an idea. Like I'm not gonna go through each year of the jumps. Like do you see the jump from nineteen thirty to nineteen forty six? Malcolm: It's just yeah, World World War Two was put in belt. But it's the thing that we're in the trillion Thomas: Bro. All of these Malcolm: the trillions now, bro. Thomas: If you look at every time the debt jumps, it it it's war. Like war is what causes the debt. People act like war is so good. And I mean, it's good for people who profit off of it, right? Obviously, people don't act like war is good, but like a lot of people who say there's benefits, they cause wars because it makes them rich. But our debt is going up, but you can see who is profiting. I mean, it goes from from 1980 to 1990, 908 billion. Malcolm: We were five point seven trillion in Clinton in two thousand. That's crazy. Thomas: I'm telling you, I I don't know what was going on like between yeah, and it's all war, like Cold War, crises, the finan and you can see from there the debt just starts getting outrageous. It it starts getting outrageous. Malcolm: Yeah, nah, they was tr they they they they just started trolling, I'm not gonna lie, bro. Gee. Thomas: Like the if forty point letter live. Malcolm: Yeah. Yeah, we yeah, we are fried, brother. I ain't gonna lie, man. Thomas: So yeah, that, you know, that that's just the state we're in. You can only imagine what it's gonna be like in the future.