From Bill Buckler, author of The Privateer [3] [3]
"Getting To The Bottom Of It All"
To put the magnitude of the current global fiscal and financial profligacy in perspective, The Privateer has in the past made use of a simple illustration. As the “fiscal cliff” looms and as the Treasury’s debt “subject to limit” grows to about $US 60 Billion below that “limit”, we make the point again.
How is it possible for a nation of almost 100 million people to survive - and indeed prosper exceedingly - when the government of that nation has a TOTAL debt of about $US 2 Billion? That question is asked in the context of today. Today, that same nation has a population of a bit more than 300 million people and is “run” by a government whose funded debts approach $US 16,400 Billion and whose TOTAL debts (funded and unfunded) are in excess of $US 200,000 Billion? That is the record of the US over the past century. Its population has tripled. Its government debt has grown by a factor of 100,000.
Which - IN REALITY - is the prosperous nation? Is it the US of 1912 or the US of 2012? Which - IN REALITY - is the nation whose citizens can look confidently towards a future in which their progeny will enjoy the fruits of their parents’ labour WITHOUT being indentured to their parents’ profligacy? Which is the nation that has not yet embarked on currency debasement and which is the nation that is nearing the inevitable end of that same road? Everybody knows the answers to these questions too.