Tim describes how US national debt may be as high as US$200k / household. Now some interesting question related questions are: - who is that debt owed to? - what proportion of current year US tax revenues go to service that debt? some of the debt may not be being serviced (no interest paid and just left to increase -- eg pensions etc, but this just makes the problem worse as the future debt will grow faster with no interest paid). Some completely back of the envelope calculation: if the average US household has an annual income of US$50k, and the interest rate on the US national debt is 5%, that interest payments represent 20% of the average US households gross income. But isn't 20% fairly close to what the average household's direct tax rate? How close is the US to reaching a standstill where 100% of collectible tax revenue goes to fund debt service, and all current spending comes from increased future debt? Adam