How much does the US really owe? Let's look at the real numbers.

[JDPriestly]

Check out this chart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_public_debt

Here are the numbers on a few sample countries:

Rank↓ Country↓ % of GDP
(CIA and Eurostat) Date↓ % of GDP (IMF) Date↓ Continent
________________________________________________________________________________
1 Japan 225.8 2010 est. 225.8 2010 Asia

________________________________________________________________________________


14 France 83.5 2010 est. 84.2 2010 Europe

________________________________________________________________________________

34 Albania 59.3 2010 est. 60.6 2010 Europe

________________________________________________________________________________

36 United States 58.9 fed 2010 est. 92.7 2010 North America
(fed + states)

________________________________________________________________________________

127 Equat. Guinea 4.1 2010 est. 7.5 2010 Africa

________________________________________________________________________________

128 Libya 3.3 2010 est. 0.0 2010 Africa

Please look at the entire chart.

The wealthier countries with more prosperous populations have greater sovereign debt.

This worrying about our debt is absurd. We should be worried about our trade deficit and our joblessness.

Obama has been snookered into wasting the people's precious time.

Germany also has a lot of debt. Yet its economy is quite healthy, thank you. You'd have to be a fool not to want to work, live and invest in France, Germany of the US.

We have a jobs problem and that means we have a revenue problem.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Snookered, hell.

That's like saying Houdini was snookered into going into the tank wearing the handcuffs.

[jwirr]

2. Looks a lot different when we see it in perspective. nt

[NobodyInParticular]

3. A simple explanation please

Does anybody know how austerity would pull us out of the economic slump? I know a lot of posters on DU assume that the Republican push for austerity is simply to bring the whole country to its knees, but what do the Republicans say why they want austerity? How would they explain how a financial squeeze of the middle class would bring about economic recovery? Just what is the Republican theory for what makes a recovery possible? If anybody has any idea, please give me an answer, or give me a link to a web page that has an answer. Thanks.

[jwirr]

4. That is going to take a long answer. Have you read "The Shock

Doctrine" by Naomi Klein? That book is the best explanation anyone can give.