59 Trillion More Reasons You Will Never Get Out of Debt

August 2015
Kiplinger: 10 Reasons You Will Never Get Out of Debt

When you finish reading those 10 reasons, here are 59 trillion more. That's how many dollars of debt, of all kinds, are in our economic system. As seen in the chart, we attempted to tackle the tiniest portion of it during the Great Recession (in a process economists like to call deleveraging), but it was just so darned overwhelming and painful.

Put another way, it was like being handed a mop and bucket and then being asked to clean up an overflowing landfill. It may seem like a brilliant plan in theory, but in practice the task becomes incredibly daunting. "May I have a second bucket to speed up the process?" you might ask. "Request denied! There is no room left in the budget for such luxuries any longer!"

The forever debt! Onwards and upwards! To infinity and beyond!!