HIGH FINANCE???

          Did you know there’s such a thing as US Debt Clock.Org? I certainly didn’t and only found out because I wanted to know just how far in debt my country is. When I typed in my request, the first choice was what I typed in the first line. It’s a rather scary website, although maybe if I understood it, it wouldn't be so scary.

          There are a whole bunch of different boxes with different titles and in some of the boxes, i.e., US National Debt, the numbers are clicking away so rapidly, my brain cannot register the number before it clicks and changes. At this very moment, $24,243,242,000,000 is the number listed for the debt. The zeros are the numbers that are changing so rapidly, I couldn’t keep up. What this boils down to is $73,554 is the debt per citizen and $195,420 is the debt per taxpayer right as I’m typing this. Of course, these numbers keep increasing as well, just not as quickly as the big number first listed.

          I’ve never said or even thought I was a math genius. Some time back in the 1960s or 1970s, Mattell made a Barbie doll that said, “Math is hard.” It wasn’t on the shelves long because women became rather irate. Me, I’m with Barbie, math is hard. I’ve always figured I was lucky to be able to balance my checkbook and keep track of my own finances. I also was taught and do believe that the less debt you owe, the better off you are. John and I always tried to keep our expenses to a minimum and our credit card debt low or nonexistent.

          So, what I’m having a hard time understanding is where all the money that has been appropriated (don’t know if that’s even the right word) for the stimulus and small business loans and big business loans, i.e., airline loans, is coming from. How can the stock market tank and leave people with losses of thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands while the government is providing money to its citizens, corporations and small business?

          Is the government just going to print more money? Is that where it’s coming from? Does the government have a slush fund from which it’s taking the money? For instance, the place I used to work is, or may be, eligible to apply for a $5 million dollar grant because it is closed and has no income. Where will that $5 million come from?

          There are other boxes on this web site. One of them is income tax revenue which stands at $3,492,749,000,000 or $10,601 per citizen. Again, the last six zeros are changing rapidly. So, how can I, as a citizen, owe $73,554 and yet only be paying $10,601. This doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Per my rudimentary math skills, I’m in the red by about $63,000 and it’s only going to continue to go up.

          Both Social Security and Medicare are listed in these charts and their numbers are changing rapidly as well. Again, they do not come close to the original numbers cited in the second paragraph, they are much much less. Maybe if I’d gone to college and taken courses having to do with high finance, I’d be able to understand how all this works. But, I didn’t and I don’t. My mother always referred to something called, “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Well doesn’t Peter eventually run out of money and have to turn to robbing Paul?

          Sorry, I just don’t get it. But, as long as my Social Security direct deposit continues to be deposited…and it was today…then I guess I’m okay and shouldn’t try to wrap my head around the government’s financial issues. I’ll try not to wonder about the possibility of the Social Security or Medicare Funds becoming  Peter in order to pay Paul.