How Long Would it Take to Pay Off the National Debt?

With government spending at an all-time high, the country is now facing a dilemma. Either we start making some unpopular cuts or face the consequences. No one has unlimited credit and the amount we owe directly affects the interest rates we pay. At 36 trillion dollars, the interest alone would be enough to bankrupt some countries. The notion that we can just print money as a solution is also not an option as too much money in the economy will drive up inflation and potentially even lead to hyperinflation. So we are left with no alternative but to either cut costs or seek additional revenue. Unfortunately, there are not enough millionaires and billionaires in the country to expect that increasing taxes alone would work. Assuming we actually could afford to make the payments though, how long would it take to pay off the national deficit if we started an aggressive payment schedule now?

If we set payments at one dollar per second, it would take well over a million years to pay off the current deficit. A dollar a second may not sound like much for the federal government but that adds up to $86,400 a day. Sadly, this is not even close to the amount that we would need to raise to pay off the national debt. If we made an even more aggressive payment schedule similar to the speed at which NASA's Voyager 1 space craft is currently travelling at (11 miles per second), it would still take over 75,000 years just to pay back the first 24 trillion (not including interest).

To really stand any chance at paying off the national debt within a reasonable time frame, we would need to increase the payments by an astronomical amount. Light is the fastest thing in the universe. It travels at an astonishing 186,282 miles per second. If we converted this to currency ($186,282 dollars per second), we could conceivably pay back the 36 trillion in just 6 years (not considering interest). A nice thought but well beyond the US Treasury's means and possibly all the world's economies combined. If we expect to be able to support Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, disability, etc., something will have to be done or these programs may not be there in the future. In just the minute it took to read this article, we have also added an estimated 2.8 million dollars onto the national debt. We are going to have to make some tough choices soon. These cuts may not be popular but at this point, there very well may not be another option.