Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Our Wasted Wealth

 

In the past few years the Obama administration along with a large cadre within the Federal government have  shoveled nearly Three Trillion Dollars (That is $3,000,000,000,000.00) down a rat hole under the guise of “Fiscal Stimulus” without ever stopping to check their Totem.   While the Keynesian sycophants justify this wanton disregard for current and future generations of Americans by claiming that everything would have been much worse without the effort without a scintilla of proof to back up their claim, I say the economic impact is easy for those who can do the math. Follow along with me…

Number of US Taxpayers:

144,000,0001

Average age of US Taxpayer:  

34 Years2 

Retirement Age:

68 Years3

Average Years to Retirement:

34 Years

Total “Stimulus” Spending:

$3,270,000,000,000.004

Spending Per Taxpayer:

$22,708.335

Average Equity Investment Return:

12%6

Wasted Wealth of Average Taxpayer:

$1,328,925.94

MoneyChimp

Now with that being said, I understand that there are those who will find some minute bone to pick with my projected rate of returns, or point out that I did not account for taxes or inflation, and these are valid claims which I am not only willing to discuss, but in the interest of full disclosure, I'm pointing them out myself. However these are at best marginal issues when you consider the big picture:

  1. I did not add the interest payments which over the same 34 year period will raise the total cost of the already staggering 3.27 Trillion borrowed today to a devastating total of 9 Trillion Dollars.
  2. I did not estimate the degraded economic conditions that every American will suffer throughout their lives due to the addition to our already commerce crushing national debt.


 

 

 

References, Citations, and Sources

  1. Ibid.
  2. Estimated Minimum Social Security retirement age in 2045
  3. Assumes a modest monthly investment of $50.00 per month by the retiree