You are paid up -For Now

Interesting piece of news. Today, July 7, marks the day that the average American has earned enough money this year to pay for the cost of Federal, State, and Local governments. Due to modestly increasing earnings across the spectrum, Americans beat last years date by one day. However, with state's economies on shaky ground, and the current 7 Trillion dollar federal deficit to become 10+ Trillion by the end of the decade, look for near future dates to extend out at as far as August.

The date is calculated by taking the total costs of American government and dividing it by the total of average American worker earnings in a day. This year, July 7, but in 6 years look for a date around July 31 or August 1st. This date is a kind of measure of how much average American workers owe the government at a single point in time. In other words, the average worker owes the governments 6 months and 7 days of their annual salary in total tax obligation in the year 2004.

When understood, this is actually a frightening statistic. This is especially so for those who don't like debt, and especially in lieu of the coming huge increases in the cost of government in just the next 6 years. Factor in this same President and Congress remaining in power and refusing to change their tax cuts today in exchange for much larger tax increases both later and at the state and local levels, and the statistic becomes a nightmare.