National Debt By Decade

As the name of this site suggests, we are big believers in the peril caused by the national debt. To get a feel of how far out of control things are, let’s take a look at the national debt by decade.

By Decade

You might be surprised to learn we had a national debt the very first day we were a country. This is because we had to borrow money to fight the British before we even codified our Constitution. Of course, we paid off the debt a few times, but it hasn’t been till the last 60 years that things have started to get seriously out of control and we now face a disaster.

1910: 2.653 Billion  
1920: 25.95 Billion [World War I] 
1930: 16.19 Billion 
1940: 42.97 Billion 
1950: 257.3 Billion [World War II]
1960: 286.3 Billion 
1970: 370.9 Billion 
1980: 907.7 Billion 
1990: 3,233 Trillion
2000: 5,674 Trillion
2010: 13,562 Trillion

These numbers reveal a few interesting things you should take note of. The first is the effect of war on the budget. The second is the massive increase in the debt in the last decade. While the debt was 13.5 trillion at the end of 2010, we are already at $14.3 just five months into 2011. The debt is growing in leaps and bounds as we move forward and it is estimated to continue growing like mad. This is a huge problem.

Scary Future – Unfunded Liabilities

The national debt moving forward is even scarier than what we’ve seen since 2000. The problem is unfunded liabilities. We’ve made legally binding promises on Social Security, healthcare [Medicare, Medicaid] and the military that will require us coming up with something like 70 trillion dollars in the next three decades. There is no way we can meet these obligations, so a crisis is inevitable.

In short, you ain’t seen nothing yet when it comes to the national debt.

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