12-01-2004, 04:23 AM
ShadowHM,Dec 1 2004, 01:21 AM Wrote:Carrying an increasing debt to pay for today's lifestyle is another. People who would never consider carrying such a huge debt load in their own lives are perfectly happy to see their government do it.
Only one minor point there, from the CPI data it looks like 30-50% (in the various states) is spent towards shelter. I am assuming that most of this is payment of a mortgage (yes, a really big weak assumption, but I couldn't find anything better), so the average US individual is happy paying a higher rate of income towards interest costs than the 13% or so that the government does.
..pause...
OK, found some slightly better info, but older at (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/...arney.html)
"Back in the early 1980s, according to Lereah's research, typical household debt ratios exceeded 30 percent. That is, a family's total debt service payments ate up 30 percent or more of household income each month. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, ratios dropped into the 22 percent range. Currently, by contrast, average household debt service ratios are in the 17 percent to 17½ percent range."
So again it looks like the Government spending is within what the average household would do. Also found that the average household debt is at about 115% of income, whereas the governments was considerably less than 100% and they pay lower interest rates than a household.