Insight
September 4, 2012
$16 Trillion and Counting
By Gordon Gray and Ben Gitis
In a time when gross debt is spiraling out of control and about to breach $16 trillion, an assessment of the regional distribution of federal indebtedness is appropriate. According to the Department of the Treasury, the Gross Public Debt Outstanding stood at $15.9039 trillion.[1] Based on a current population of 308,145,489 living in the 50 U.S., U.S. per capita debt is $51,611.79. Distributing this individual share of the national debt provides a more localized perspective on the magnitude of the national debt, and necessarily, the urgent need to address its unsustainable growth.