4 ms·

"If the individuals on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans pledged half their net worth to charity, that would amount to $600 billion" Perspective: The US

by abraham 16y ago

"If the individuals on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans pledged half their net worth to charity, that would amount to $600 billion" Perspective: The US national debt is increasing by over $4b per day. If the $600b was used just to keep the debt from increasing it would last less then 5 months. http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

antidaily 16y ago
Does that factor in interest on the debt?
- abraham 16y ago
  I believe so although I did not find confirmation one way or the other.
someone_here 16y ago
When considering that the national debt is directly related to inflation, this"$600 billion" might not be, as it is "their net worth". The public debt is $8.63 Trillion and this pledge could reduce that significantly, boosting the dollar and reducing the debt increase rate a corresponding amount. On the other hand, maybe I don't understand what I'm talking about, and if so, please correct me.
- anamax 16y ago
  > When considering that the national debt is directly related to inflation Actually, it's not. Inflation is related to interest rates and the "value of the dollar", both of which affect our ability to pay off the debt, but the debt itself, the number of dollars owed right now, is independent of inflation. > this pledge could reduce that significantly It's less than 10% of the admitted debt, $8T, and that number is significantly less than the unfunded liabilities (SS, Medicare that folks think that they have pre-paid). And most of those folks are giving their money to charity, not to govt, so it's not providing govt revenue that can be used to pay off govt debt.
  - Retric 16y ago
    The debt is not indexed to inflation or GDP. So, 13.3 Trillion * 3% = ~400Billion per year so an 400B "increase" would represent zero increase in inflation adjusted debt. In other words if the debt increased 0$ in a given year we would have effectively paid off ~3% of it. PS: The actual increase in debt over the last few years has still been ridiculously fast. Defense-related expenditures outside of the Department of Defense constitute between $216 billion and $361 billion in additional spending, bringing the total for defense spending to between $880 billion and $1.03 trillion in fiscal year 2010.[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_S...) Basicly we are putting the entire DoD budget on Credit Cards.
  - jbooth 16y ago
    Man, remember in 2000 when that guy was talking about lockboxes? What a dork!
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    less than 10% of your debt is still progress.
- dan00 16y ago
  "The public debt is $8.63 Trillion and this pledge could reduce that significantly, boosting the dollar and reducing the debt increase rate a corresponding amount." Wouldn't it be funny, if at the end every nation/bank has the same debt to each other?
  - someone_here 16y ago
    Keep in mind that the public debt is exactly equal to the amount of money in circulation.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
sk_0919 16y ago
Another perspective: What a $100 billion can do - http://www.visualeconomics.com/what-bp-could-have-bought-with-all-the-money-they-lost/ http://www.visualeconomics.com/what-bp-could-have-bought-wit...
- angstrom 16y ago
  So this is how one defines Opportunity Cost...
- Ardit20 16y ago
  So, with all the money we gave to the banks, we could do all that like ten times!
- agbell 16y ago
  100 b is based on the fall of the stock price, not actual money spent or lost. Stock will bounce back ( it has somewhat already I think )
mynameishere 16y ago
If a rich person gave 50 percent of his money to the US Treasury, it would be the equivilent of a 50 percent asset levy on the money. I suspect a generally-imposed 50 percent levy could be regarded as an economically-destructive thing. A specifically-imposed one would be the same, on a smaller scale. It comes down to whether the billions of dollars fund businesses or bureaucrats.

by abraham 16y ago

antidaily 16y ago

Does that factor in interest on the debt?

abraham 16y ago
I believe so although I did not find confirmation one way or the other.

someone_here 16y ago

When considering that the national debt is directly related to inflation, this"$600 billion" might not be, as it is "their net worth". The public debt is $8.63 Trillion and this pledge could reduce that significantly, boosting the dollar and reducing the debt increase rate a corresponding amount. On the other hand, maybe I don't understand what I'm talking about, and if so, please correct me.

anamax 16y ago
> When considering that the national debt is directly related to inflation Actually, it's not. Inflation is related to interest rates and the "value of the dollar", both of which affect our ability to pay off the debt, but the debt itself, the number of dollars owed right now, is independent of inflation. > this pledge could reduce that significantly It's less than 10% of the admitted debt, $8T, and that number is significantly less than the unfunded liabilities (SS, Medicare that folks think that they have pre-paid). And most of those folks are giving their money to charity, not to govt, so it's not providing govt revenue that can be used to pay off govt debt.
- Retric 16y ago
  The debt is not indexed to inflation or GDP. So, 13.3 Trillion * 3% = ~400Billion per year so an 400B "increase" would represent zero increase in inflation adjusted debt. In other words if the debt increased 0$ in a given year we would have effectively paid off ~3% of it. PS: The actual increase in debt over the last few years has still been ridiculously fast. Defense-related expenditures outside of the Department of Defense constitute between $216 billion and $361 billion in additional spending, bringing the total for defense spending to between $880 billion and $1.03 trillion in fiscal year 2010.[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_S...) Basicly we are putting the entire DoD budget on Credit Cards.
- jbooth 16y ago
  Man, remember in 2000 when that guy was talking about lockboxes? What a dork!
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  less than 10% of your debt is still progress.
dan00 16y ago
"The public debt is $8.63 Trillion and this pledge could reduce that significantly, boosting the dollar and reducing the debt increase rate a corresponding amount." Wouldn't it be funny, if at the end every nation/bank has the same debt to each other?
- someone_here 16y ago
  Keep in mind that the public debt is exactly equal to the amount of money in circulation.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

sk_0919 16y ago

Another perspective: What a $100 billion can do - http://www.visualeconomics.com/what-bp-could-have-bought-with-all-the-money-they-lost/ http://www.visualeconomics.com/what-bp-could-have-bought-wit...

angstrom 16y ago
So this is how one defines Opportunity Cost...
Ardit20 16y ago
So, with all the money we gave to the banks, we could do all that like ten times!
agbell 16y ago
100 b is based on the fall of the stock price, not actual money spent or lost. Stock will bounce back ( it has somewhat already I think )

mynameishere 16y ago

If a rich person gave 50 percent of his money to the US Treasury, it would be the equivilent of a 50 percent asset levy on the money. I suspect a generally-imposed 50 percent levy could be regarded as an economically-destructive thing. A specifically-imposed one would be the same, on a smaller scale. It comes down to whether the billions of dollars fund businesses or bureaucrats.