Population and the prospect of the US Debt Situation

A look into the growing population and the growing debt crisis

Eighty one thousand one hundred thirty dolllars! That’s the magic number right now. The national debt per capita(per citizen) is currently $81,130. I have often pondered whether the growing population had much to do with the growing National Debt of the United States. The fact is you’d think the more tax paying citizens we have in our country the more help we’d have to pay down the debt and become self sustaining and yet every year the budget is blown and we are farther in the hole than we were the year before even though our population continues to grow at exhorbenent amounts. I decided to look into the past 20 years to see if population has paid a large part in our Countries Debt.

I began my research by gathering the data needed to investigate any correlations between the two in the past 20 years. I found the Nations Debt logged by years as well as the Nations Population counts for the same years. I performed some data analysis and found there wasn’t too much to find in relation to the two. I found a test that confirmed they were dependent variables while another test resulted in no similarities between them. At the end of the day it appears that while the population may be a factor in the Debt crisis, it isn’t the major factor. However true variables affecting the Nations Debt have to do with Historical happenings, The tragedy of 9-11, the Ressesion, Covid-19, and mother nature with Hurricanes, Tornados, and Wildfires to name a few large factors that have impacted our nations debt and continue to cause drastic increases.

The largest of these has been due to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 which brought us two wars, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. To date these wars have added 6 Trillion Dollar to our US Debt. This all coming after back to back years of having a Budget Surplus that would have been a great beginning to lowering our nations debt.

The next largest by far is something we all know about and are living the life as it goes on. Covid-19 so far has blown up our Nations Debt by yet another 3 Trillion Dollars. The Cares Act set to keep families afloat and fed through one of the toughest times to hit Americans since the Recession was a huge bailout and life line to the Citizens of the US but who knows where they are going to find the surplus to pay that off.

In total yearly our Country prepares roughly 58 Billion Dollars to help in disaster relief for Wildfires, Hurricanes and other natural disasters. The exception to this of course was the horrendous events of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. Together these two great disasters cost our country well over 230 Billion Dollars blowing budgets and continuing to add to the national debt crisis. This millenia sure hasnt been great to us. Its been a testament to kind of people we are. No matter what may come and knock us down we get up, dust ourselves off and keep pushing forward.

One thing that is for certain is that one way or another the leadership in the United States is going to have a large task of figuring out just what to do with this ever growing crisis and signing another check will not get the job done.

Just a little diddly by Victoria Debebe