Understanding the 31 trillion dollar national debt of the USA in January 2023
John ShanahanFebruary 28, 2024
The U.S. National Debt was about $1 trillion in 1980. That included 200+ years of history, very large wars, disastrous economic crashes, depressions and vast purchases of new territories.
From 1980 to 2023, the National Debt has grown to $31.4 trillion. Presidents, the Congress, the Treasury Department, universities, and the mass media say almost nothing about this raging fire of a problem.
Thirty one trillion four hundred billion dollars stacked in one dollar bills would occupy a space 500 feet wide by 720 feet long by 1,450 feet high. See graphic on next page.
Everyone fears wildfires and fire bombing that destroyed vast areas of western forests, California cities, Chicago, ancient Rome, and Hamburg, Dresden and Tokyo in WWII. These fires and fire bombings are far worse than the two American nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki..
Most American elected officials, government employees, university academics, the mass media and the public have no idea of the tremendous debt the American government has taken us to since 1980. This debt will never be paid back. That’s the big deceit. The United States prints money and sells actually worthless paper Treasury bonds to people, businesses, banks and governments in the USA and abroad. The only way this debt has value is that the Treasury Bonds are always repaid with new debt.
What will happen when this deceit about incomprehensible National Debt is finally understood by American citizens and the world?
Has America failed just as badly in other domestic and foreign affairs issues since 1950? What will the future be?
31.4 trillion dollars in one dollar bills would occupy a space 508 feet wide by 720 feet long by 1,450 feet high. Click the four arrow button at bottom right of page to enlarge this graphic and see the fine print information.