A Trillion or Forty
The U.S. now has more than $40 trillion of national debt and is adding another $1 trillion approximately every five months. The latest dubious milestone was passed on Wednesday, and the most significant drivers of the rising debt are, in order: Social Security, Medicare, debt interest, healthcare, and defense. For perspective, the U.S. annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is approximately $32 trillion, which makes the national debt more than 125% of GDP.
Analysis and eternal perspective: It is very difficult to make sense of numbers, spending, and debt this large. To help with assessing magnitude, a trillion dollars is a million dollars a million times over! Now do that 40 times!
This is a story that generates finger-pointing from every corner and toward every possible faction of government. Here’s the simple but difficult truth: No party, majority, or president in recent memory has taken serious measures to curb the exploding debt. Obviously, that does not mean that every economic policy is created equal, but every flavor of partisan control has taken its turn at the levers of government while the national debt curve has continued to bend upward. In reality, this will continue until American voters insist on a change in focus from both parties.
Our last story contained a reminder to store up treasure in heaven, and this story is a good opportunity to focus in on your own handling of economic resources. How are you stewarding that which God has entrusted to you? What is your family’s debt-to-GDP, per se? Since we know our hearts follow our treasure, what does your spending allocation say about your heart’s condition?
These can be difficult questions to honestly grapple with, but they can also be incredibly liberating. There is nothing quite as freeing as ordering your economic life in a way that prioritizes generosity. It reduces the hold of earthly things, and it bestows a perspective that is far greater than our own small needs and wants.
You might not be in charge of $40 trillion, but be faithful with whatever God has entrusted to you, and in doing so, He will entrust you with far greater things!
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much” (Lk. 16:10).