A fun way to think about, talk about, and demonstrate the US national debt.

Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is a very impressive person. Nice guy, too. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting him briefly at FreedomFest 2024 here in Las Vegas.

Why is he impressive? Well, he’s easily the most libertarian (and financially literate) member of the US House of Representatives. He’s also a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a successful tech entrepreneur.

When he decided to quit all that and move back to Kentucky to raise his children, he bought a huge piece of land in a “holler” and designed and built his super-green “off grid” house from scratch.

There’s a great little documentary about that on YouTube called Off the Grid that I highly recommend. It’s only 35 minutes, but it really gives you a good sense of how impressive this guy is.

Representative Massie is concerned with the staggering amount of debt the US government has accumulated. It’s just shy of $35 trillion. Neither you nor I nor Massie himself can conceptualize how big a number that is. It is far far far far outside our frame of reference.

To get the debt more “in the face” of his fellow congresscritters, Massie designed, programmed, and built something he calls a Debt Badge. It clips to your suit jacket pocket and displays a running total of the US debt while you’re out trying to convince your fellow legislators to quit spending us into oblivion.

Here he is wearing his Debt Badge:

And here’s a closeup:

That second one is mine. I bought one from him (signed personally) at FreedomFest. Am I a nerd and a fanboy? Yes. Yes I am.

The thing is pretty cool. Every day it connects via your wifi to a US Treasury server and gets the official national debt number. In between connections, it estimates the second by second debt increase by extrapolation.

It’s pretty nifty — and terrifying.

The US debt is an enormous problem and even “normies” are starting to understand its seriousness. This is the kind of debt that ends empires. It’s the kind of debt that destroys currencies.

It’s the kind of debt that leads to starvation and death as the entire structure of production that gives us food and energy shatters.

Here’s a chart of US debt over the years, adjusted for inflation:

It rose a lot during the disaster that was World War Two (WWII), but it really took off when Nixon cut the last connection of the US dollar to gold in 1971. This is what unrestrained government spending looks like.

Perhaps even worse is the US debt in comparison to GDP. Here’s what that looks like:

People who follow these things say that when a country’s debt/GDP ratio cracks 125%, that is a precipitous tipping point, beyond which lies doom. I can’t evaluate that claim, but I am worried about it. Our debt/GDP ratio hasn’t been this high since the privation that accompanied WWII.

After WWII, US politicians ignored their Keynesian economic advisors and slashed government spending, leading to a much needed period of private production and prosperity.

Do you think our politicians these days have that kind of wisdom? I sure don’t.

So now I have a delightful little bauble that I can look at, wear, and be terrified by.

Jealous?

Naturally,

Adam

Oh… want to learn what kinds of economic policies and political philosophies won’t destroy a civilization? Check out Liberty Classroom. I’ll be over here staring at this mesmerizing thing…