The Answer To The U.S. Debt Problem…Donate!
The U.S. Treasury is a charity case. At least super rich Warren Buffett believes it is, when he announced in Time magazine that he would match any donations made by Republicans that help pay down the U.S. debt. Not a bad idea. Get some good PR and make a dent in the deficit. A small dent but at this point every penny counts, right? Well, you can contribute, too.
What If We All Got On Board?
It’s a simple question actually. What if everyone donated $100, $500, or $1,000 to help pay down the deficit. We’ll be paying it out of our pockets or paychecks eventually. Why not just get it over with now? We could even budget it out over the next 12 months.
For as little as $8.33 a month you can make a difference in the U.S. deficit!
Doesn’t sound to bad. It’s cheaper than that Netflix account you are wasting money on and it’s going to a good cause, keeping my future taxes low.
If we go by the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, there are just over 240 million (the civilian noninstitutional population) able-bodied people in this country capable of working. Thus capable of donating. We should probably base it off of real workers (just over 150 million) but even people not receiving a pay check are getting some type of government benefit through unemployment, social security, or medicare. It’s certainly in their best interest to keep the deficit low or risk having these benefits cut.
| Population | $100 donation | $500 donation | $1,000 donation | $2,000 donation |
| 150 million labor force | $1.5 billion | $7.5 billion | $150 billion | $300 billion |
| 240 million CNP | $24 billion | $120 billion | $240 billion | $480 billion |
Currently the U.S. deficit is sitting at over $15 trillion. For 2011 the interest payments were just over $453 billion. Which makes the $1,000 donation chump change. We would have to donate along the lines of $2,000 or more just to keep the deficit from increasing this year.
Of course, this doesn’t include any potential donations from businesses. Get the businesses on board and we can actually making a dent in that deficit. The businesses could consider it lobbying money, to keep taxes low.
We should just bite the bullet now before it becomes mandatory with higher taxes.
The Gift You’ll Keep On Giving
Interested in making a donation? It didn’t take much searching to find a link with some information. It’s actually right on the front page at TreasuryDirect.gov and leads you to an explanation on the two ways to make a donation:
You can make a donation online by credit card, checking or savings account through Pay.gov.
Or, you can write a check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt. In the memo write that it’s a Gift to Reduce the Debt Held by the Public. Mail the check to:
Attn Dept G
Bureau of the Public Debt
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188
We can get ahead of the game on this one. Make your donation today!
Image: Flickr – iDanSimpson
You Might Also Like:
- We Need U.S. Debt, Just Not All Of It
- The Debt Ceiling Raise And Your Money
- Investing After The Debt Debacle
haha – I didn’t know you could actually donate to pay towards the U.S. deficit. It would be nice, but we would just go back into debt. It’s how we function…
I had no idea either. Actually came across it a while back and found it interesting.
I cannot imagine what will happen to the united states if china and all the countries and all investors the world over shun the dollar. Interest rates would rise and the federal reserve would be forced to buy bonds from the treasury to fund the government and pay interest on all of the governments bills notes and bonds. When the buyers for united states debt obligations disappears the whole system will come crashing down. This is the type of thing that peter shiff has been warning everyone about when the ability of the united states to pay its debts becomes clearly in doubt all the buyers for united states debt securities disappears overnight.
The problem with that is U.S. debt will always be a flight to safety vehicle. Where else can you put $15 trillion dollars that is considered a safe investment. Certainly not Europe or the emerging markets. Inflation may sky rocket, but U.S. bonds will still be the best house in a terrible neighborhood. Peter Schiff reminds me of the boy who cried wolf every time CNBC puts a camera on him. He offers an extremist view that makes for good tv.
Pretty funny stuff – but sobering, for sure. $15.2 trillion would mean around $48,000 per citizen… and somebody has got to pay it back, heh.
Eventually higher taxes is inevitable. I wouldn’t be surprised to see rates next year similar to when Clinton was in office.
I didn’t know about this either. Good idea.
I live in Canada and we donate a lot in general. We like to try to help those in need. The way I look at it, if you can, why wouldn’t you?!
I’m sure the U.S. treasury will gladly accept any extra Loonies you can spare, lol.
Interesting idea, but the US government would just go back into debt anyway. Besides, debt in places like the US or UK is not just a government proble, its society wide. The Debt to GDP ratio in the UK is 400pc, i.e. total debt including government, consumer, corporate and banks is FOUR times the size of the UK economy. In the US, it is 350pc. Many other western countries have somewhat similar ratios. Unfortunately, much of this debt will never be repaid, and growth will be very slow as consumers slowly deleverage/pay down debt.