Don’t panic: Time magazine is wrong about the national debt [View all]

[LuckyTheDog]

The latest issue of Time magazine features a stark red cover with a strident warning:

“DEAR READER,” it reads. “You owe $42,998.12.” As it goes on to explain, “That’s what every American man, woman and child would need to pay to erase the $13.9 trillion in U.S. debt.”

Needless to say, that’s a hefty chunk of change, more than 80 percent of the American median household income. But does that number actually mean anything?

“It just seems unbelievably silly,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. “This has nothing to do with people’s future living standards, nothing to do with the ability of the government to pay back its debts. It’s basically zero information.”

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/time-magazine-wrong-national-debt/