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View Full Version : Something to think about while hiking...



couscous
11-29-2012, 09:06
* U.S. Debt in hiking terms. Start at Springer Mountain with $10,000 "bricks" of one hundred $100 bills. Face north and lay the "bricks" ten wide and ten long. You would now have a hiking path 26.1" wide and 61.4" long containing $1 million. Continue paving north and just before you arrive at Big Stamp Gap / USFS 42, you would reach $1 billion. Continue paving north through Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and most of Virginia. You would reach the $1 trillion mark just before you arrived at the Jim & Molly Denton Shelter. To represent the current $16.31 trillion dollars of U.S. Total Public Debt Outstanding (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np) - you could finish paving all 2,181 miles of the Appalachian Trail, 3,100 miles of the Continental Divide Trail, 2,654 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, 1,444 miles of the Buckeye Trail in Ohio, 1,400 miles of the Florida Trail, 1,000 miles of the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin, 790 miles of the Arizona Trail, 562 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail in western New York, 500 miles of the Colorado Trail, 330 miles of the Allegheny Trail in West Virginia, 300 miles of the Benton MacKaye Trail, 295 miles of the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama, 282 miles of the Sheltowee Trace Trail in Kentucky, 270 miles of the Long Trail in Vermont, 211 miles of the John Muir Trail in California, 205 miles of the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota, 92 miles of the Midstate Trail in Massachusetts, 85 miles of the Susquehannock Trail in Pennsylvania, 70 miles of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail in Pennsylvania and 33 miles of the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska .. and have over $9 billion left.

The current estimated unfunded liabilities from Social Security, Prescription Drugs, Medicare Liabilities and other government obligations could be represented by paving the same type of path along all 47,182 miles of the Interstate Highway System .. in both directions .. and half of all the miles a third time.

swjohnsey
11-29-2012, 09:15
By the time it hits the fan I will be dead.

max patch
11-29-2012, 09:16
True, but our children are royally screwed.

moldy
11-29-2012, 09:27
I think they should move this post to the "angry republican" page.

Sarcasm the elf
11-29-2012, 09:39
True, but our children are royally screwed.Yup. When you get down to it, the debt isnt about politics, it's about generational theft. My parents generation ran up a tab, put in what they thought they owed and my generation are the ones sitting at the table when it's time to settle up. What's really sad to me is that funding for our wild spaces will likely be first on the chopping block when the bill comes due. There are already dozens of lobbying firms running TV adds to convince the public that we will magically be able to balance the budget with new tax revenue if only we let their industry destroy the natural world. Whatever happens in the coming years the trails are going to need all the allies they an get.

oldbear
11-29-2012, 09:42
Solution :
Sell Alaska to Canada
Hawaii to Japan
Texas to Mexico
Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands to the highest bidder
Problem solved

surfnturk
11-29-2012, 09:52
I think they should move this post to the "angry republican" page.

Name 1 thing he posted that isn't true?

yellowsirocco
11-29-2012, 09:56
and neither side is serious about reducing it. they would rather just bicker.

Mags
11-29-2012, 09:59
Get your political fix here:
http://dis.4chan.org/newpol/


Feel free to discuss white blazing vs blue blazing, alcohol stoves and down jackets on a political board, too. ;)