Rant: The U.S. facing the largest financial collapse ever

[Adam Back]

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