Debt

I have the advantage of having a husband who is good with numbers.  He has been mulling over the size of the US and UK debt.

America is carrying $17.3 trillion of debt as at 6 January 2014.  If you took one second to post a dollar into a slot, and you spent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, posting dollars to pay off this debt, it would take a staggering 550,000 years. 

BUT, this is just the debt as at 6 January 2014.  Based on current trends, US debt is increasing by approximately $1 trillion a year.  Each trillion will take 32,000 years to pay off.  So, for each of the 550,000 years you spend paying off the original debt you will be gaining another 32,000 years of debt repayment.  In otherwords, 550,000 x 32,000 years . . . to infinitiy and beyond!

China and Japan are the largest purchasers of this debt.  I think we see before us a new world order, where the politics of power is no longer based on military might but on financial leverage.

In the UK we have £1.4 trillion of debt which will take 45,000 years to repay at one pound per second.

It's too easy to think that this is just virtual money.  Money, after all, does not exist in any tangible way.  Money is just a gentleman's agreement to pay.  Fluctuating interest and exchange rates, the volatility of stocks and shares, rates of inflation teach us that we live in a world of shifting sand.  But at some point these relativities impact on the real world as we have seen with the credit crunch and recent austerity measures. 

This all begs the question, how can we possibly help developing countries when we in the west are effectively bankrupt?  What heritage are we leaving our children? We have stolen their future, for debt denies opportunities for tomorrow. 

Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 6 verses 19 - 21,"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."