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.
