Sixteen Tons and $9 Trillion in Debt

My late father, who loved Fifties-era country music and hated debt, often used to mutter the chorus from this song at moments of financial stress, like back-to-school shopping and the State of the Union address. So even though the song is kind of a cliche, I still think about "Sixteen Tons" when I’m working on Facing Up to the Nation’s Finances.

Now, when I’ve shown that clip around people have a couple of different reactions: (a) it’s strange to see Tennessee Ernie Ford singing about coal miners in a suit and tie and (b) what does this song really have to do with the national debt. True, it’s probably the best song ever written about owing money, but the U.S. government is hardly the poor coal miner of the modern world. We’re the world’s largest economy and the sole superpower. We’re on the top of the ladder, not the bottom of the shaft.

But there’s one truth that applies in both cases: once you get far enough behind in your debts, you stay behind. Or as David Walker, the head of the GAO, likes to put it, “When you’re a creditor, compound interest works for you. When you’re a debtor, compound interest works against you.” The pattern’s always the same. First you’re inconvenienced, then you’re crushed. That works for people, companies and governments alike.

The U.S. government is $9 trillion in debt now. That’s two-thirds of the value of the gross domestic product. And that’s not even counting the future liabilities we know are waiting for us over the next few decades: $6.4 trillion to cover Social Security. A staggering $32 trillion to cover Medicare. All told, it adds up to more than $50 trillion in liabilities, with all that compound interest quietly ticking away. This is why the idea that we’ll just “grow our way out of the debt” simply isn’t going to work. If nothing is done, the GAO estimates that by 2040 the government won’t have any money to pay for anything other than Medicare, Social Security and interest on the debt. Everything else is out – defense, education, national parks, office chairs, all of it.

There’s one other big difference between the national debt and “Sixteen Tons,” and it’s not flattering. There’s no mining company to blame for this, no robber baron sticking it to us. We’re doing this to ourselves. Sure, you can blame the politician of your choice, or “the system” in general. There’s not much leadership on this issue. But the cold fact is that politicians get away with ignoring this because the public isn’t engaged with this problem. We, the public, haven’t made the national debt an issue for the politicians. And we give them no indication that we’re willing to consider any of the alternatives – except the near-mythical painless ones.

And so instead of real plans from the presidential candidates, we get promises without payment. Instead of fiscal responsibility in Washington, we get partisan maneuvering.

This can change. But average people have got to make it change. Despite the all-too-real frustrations of American politics, the average American has a lot more control over their lives than the coal miners of a century ago had over theirs. But we have to face up to the problem, start thinking through the options, and demand answers that make sense from our politicians. That’s what Facing Up is all about. Give it a shot.

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This is my entry for the Facing Up blog carnival on the $9 trillion debt. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's entries and expect to have the digest posted Dec. 13. Thanks for participating.