Originally Posted by nation-x

This is how the right skews numbers.... by claiming things like these outrageous numbers but never providing context. The typical person works 35 years...

$186,000 / 35 years = $5314/year during their working lifetime... or an average of $442 per month.

Here is an interesting fact.
Total US Household Net Worth as of 2007 was $55,600,000,000,000. If you divide that by a population of 300,000,000 you get an average of $183,000 per capita. Interesting fact isn't it?

Since doing away with the Gold Standard our currency is valued based on Labor Economics... or the value of our output as a country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value

If you use these calculations... which most economists do... we are in no real danger because our output plus national net worth exceeds the debt by far.

I am not saying that nothing should be done... only stating that the problem isn't quite as epic as imagined by the fearmongerers.