U.S. Debt Hits $36 Trillion—But How Much Does The Government Hold In Assets?
I was worried about the debt, but then I saw how much the government holds in assets. Now, I'm less worried.
Everybody talks about the Debt-to-GDP ratio, nobody talks about the Debt-to-Assets ratio.
Here’s Noah Smith:
Where the US stands:
Annual Tax Revenue: $5 trillion
Annual Spending: $7 trillion
Total Debt: $36 trillion
Total Assets: $200+ trillion
Put it in perspective:
You make $60k/year.
You spend about $71k/year.
You have $74k of debt
You are worth $414k (house and stocks - very little crypto)
Seems not great when you look at the cashflow and the income-to-debt ratio, but doesn’t looks so bad when you look at the asset-to-debt ratio.
How much land does the US Federal Government own?
Here’s a map that shows all the land owned by the US Federal government:
$36 trillion of debt? Who cares? Here’s a simple solution:
Sell Alaska to China
Sell the Grand Canyon to Jeff Bezos (he would go shit-house for it)
Might be stupid, but I bet Dave Ramsey would approve.
One caveat:
We gotta make sure we don’t get swindled like Napoleon in the Louisiana Purchase.
They say Thomas Jefferson initially only wanted to buy New Orleans to secure access to the Mississippi River. But then Napoleon unexpectedly offered the entire Louisiana Territory — which would double the size of the United States —Jefferson quickly agreed. In the end, the U.S. paid $15 million (about $350 million today).
*Thanks to anyone who read all this. Just getting started here on Substack. Having some fun. Never really written a blog before.