ContraPloy

By Jim Swift | Commentary, ContraPloy (Various & Sundry section) The federal debt is big. But how big is too big? At time of this writing, it’s $38 trillion and change. Is that too much? Who knows? The only practical way to understand it is to compare it with another number. A popular approach is to compare it with Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These days, the national debt is around 119% of GDP. That seems bad. Actually it’s worse, because it’s comparing the money the federal government borrowed with the goods and services everyone produces. If we compare the national debt to just the revenue the federal government collects, it’s more like 600%. But is it too much? Who knows? Another approach is to compare it with the population of the country, which is around 343 million sou...