Hello Everyone
Sometimes too many zeros are confusing. There are twelve zeros in a trillion, nine in a billion, six in a million, three in a thousand and two in a hundred. Two many zeros add up to big problems just like too few does as well. We have too many zeros in our spending in the USA and Europe and so do most families who have lots of credit card debt On the low side we have one zero and that is in the leadership of congress and other politicans whom only care about themselves.
The biggest problem is a lack of self discipline and not deferring our gratification. It is easy to spend your money, but hard to save it. It is easy to lie on the couch, but hard to exercise. It is easy to not have those tough conversations with employees not performing, but hard to have them. It is easy to not discipline your children, but hard to do it.
Are you doing the easy things or the hard things?
Lesson #1
Why the U.S. credit rating was downgraded:
* U.S. Tax revenue: (Trillion)
$2,170,000,000,000
* Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000 (Billion)….A drop in the ocean
Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts: $385
Got It ?????
OK now Lesson # 2:
Here’s another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:
Let’s say, You come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in
your neighborhood….and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.
What do you think you should do …… raise the ceilings or pump out the mess?
It is just a matter of time until this all comes home to roost. Go on a diet now or die early from excessive weight…Lee
Well…
The size of the debt if a contributing factor to the downgrading of the US credit rating. However – love them or hate them, annother major contributor was the gang of civics amateurs who surfed into DC on a wave of citizen discontent with government and postured and threatened not to pay US Creditors.
You can paraphrase Mark Twain who said “A classic is something everybody wants to have read, but nobody wants to read”. The national debt is something everybody wants to have paid, but nobody wants to pay. Unfortunalely the budget of the federal government is a complex subject that tackling in a blog post (or reply) will only start to scratch the surface of the problem. In many ways it feels like a willingness to pay interest on a credit card simply because you did not want to “pony up the dough” in the first place. Regardless as to whether or not you had it.
While I have witnessed the model of reducing the number of zeros in the budget a number of times in recent months. This is the first model that demonstrates how small some of the budget cuts are in comparison. For that you have my complements. I really don’t think that has been talked about enough.
Thanks Lee. Great points on this topic. It really is not a difficult situation to figure out. Now we need enough leadership to do something about it.