FARM INCOME COMPARED TO THE NATIONAL DEBT

Net farm income in the USA was $98.1 billion in 2011 (i.e., gross income less expenses), up +59% in the last 2 years. The $98.1 billion was an all-time record, exceeding the $87.4 billion earned in 2004 (source: Department of Agriculture).

Now let’s compare that to the national debt.  If you want to get really concerned look at the debt clock at http://www.usdebtclock.org/

As I write this on Saturday March 31, 2012 at 8:50 AM you can see that our total US national debt (upper left hand corner) is a $15,603,671,688,728.  That’s over fifteen and a half trillion dollars.  It shows the annual deficit at $1,318,819,988,953.  I challenge you to open the hyperlink above and see how much it has grown since I wrote this.

So what does this all mean?  It would take all of the farm income for 13.44 years just to cover the current year’s budget deficit.  And, that number is growing.  If that is not scary enough, it would take over 159 years of all the farm income in the United States just to cover our national debt.

Politicians need to do something to reverse this trend but it is not politically correct so they do nothing.  Eventually we are going to see higher taxes and less government services.  I hope they fix it before it’s not too late.