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Saturday, April 16, 2011

Debt free in 20 years

Well, I know that you've all been waiting for this, so here we go.

I think it only fair to preface my comments with the firm conviction that we live in the greatest country on the face of this planet. Needless to say I also believe that if something isn't worth paying for, it most likely isn't worth having.

And yes, I believe that “everyone” should pay taxes. The day that 47% of Americans do not pay any income tax must come to an end.

In a simple effort to accomplish some semblance of debt reduction I  have concocted the following plan to assist in getting us out of debt over the next 10 years. I started by using information from the Wall Street Journal of March 5, 2011. From that article I extrapolated the annual wages and salaries earned in the US to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.57 Trillion. Written out, that is $6,570,000,000,000.00.

My next stop was the Debt Time Clock and using that I computed the debt to be approximately $14.5 Trillion. $14,500,000,000,000.00. Isn't this a cool site?

The next bit of data took some work. No, it actually took a lot of work. I found that the average interest paid on the national debt is computed at or very near 3.103%. You have to remember that some of this debt goes way back. Way before the interest free loans that no one is able to get.

So now that we have the variables this is what I propose.

Every wage earner in this country, not every person mind you, whether they be man, woman or child, legal or illegal, rich, middle class or poor shall, beginning on October 1, 2011(US fiscal calendar), have deducted from their gross wages the sum of 15%. After that the remainder will be taxed as normally done.

We create an amortized note and every little penny shall go first to pay the interest on the debt and the remainder shall reduce the principal.

In its simplest form we shall completely pay the debt down over the next 20 years.

     

National Debt

National Debt

YR

Debt

Wage/salary for debt

Interest

after payment

1

14,500,000,000,000

985,500,000,000

449,935,000,000

13,964,435,000,000

2

13,964,435,000,000

985,500,000,000

433,316,418,050

13,412,251,418,050

3

13,412,251,418,050

985,500,000,000

416,182,161,502

12,842,933,579,552

4

12,842,933,579,552

985,500,000,000

398,516,228,974

12,255,949,808,526

5

12,255,949,808,526

985,500,000,000

380,302,122,559

11,650,751,931,084

6

11,650,751,931,084

985,500,000,000

361,522,832,422

11,026,774,763,506

7

11,026,774,763,506

985,500,000,000

342,160,820,912

10,383,435,584,417

8

10,383,435,584,417

985,500,000,000

322,198,006,184

9,720,133,590,602

9

9,720,133,590,602

985,500,000,000

301,615,745,316

9,036,249,335,918

10

9,036,249,335,918

985,500,000,000

280,394,816,894

8,331,144,152,812

11

8,331,144,152,812

985,500,000,000

258,515,403,062

7,604,159,555,873

12

7,604,159,555,873

985,500,000,000

235,957,071,019

6,854,616,626,892

13

6,854,616,626,892

985,500,000,000

212,698,753,932

6,081,815,380,825

14

6,081,815,380,825

985,500,000,000

188,718,731,267

5,285,034,112,092

15

5,285,034,112,092

985,500,000,000

163,994,608,498

4,463,528,720,590

16

4,463,528,720,590

985,500,000,000

138,503,296,200

3,616,532,016,790

17

3,616,532,016,790

985,500,000,000

112,220,988,481

2,743,253,005,271

18

2,743,253,005,271

985,500,000,000

85,123,140,754

1,842,876,146,024

19

1,842,876,146,024

985,500,000,000

57,184,446,811

914,560,592,835

20

914,560,592,835

985,500,000,000

28,378,815,196

-42,560,591,969

Of course it is a lot more complicated than I propose, but the wrinkles can be ironed out if we are serious about solving the problem.

One thing is certain: If everyone is not willing to ante up then we're probably headed down the same road taken by Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland to name just a few. Oh, and let’s not forget Rome.