Partial Reneg of the National Debt

Although debt repudiation is slowly becoming a topic outside of libertarian circles, one could make the counter-argument that people are responsible for the debt because the government that accrued it is the government elected by the people.

One could counter argue that the politicians in power weren't the one supported, and therefore the person who voted against the politician in power isn't liable. There are two different, and contradictory, counterarguments used against that. First, by voting at all, the person agrees to the outcome. Second, by not voting, the person agrees to the outcome. It is the deadly double-bind of democratic statism used to ensnare all who dare dissent by showing that they agree.

In truth the debt is owed by the politicians, past and present, who voted for it. But as they not only will never be held accountable, and they cannot afford it, they also insist the rest of us owe the debt, let us examine taking them at their word.

For some of the following calculations, both of those are going to be assumed to be true, in spite of the fact that they contradict each other. It is a common practice to say that the debt, divided by the population, gives us the share of debt owed by each person in this country. Given that debt, the following figures are the result.

President	Debt	Population	Share
Kennedy / Johnson	311,712,899,257.30	180,671,158	1,725.31
Johnson	347,578,406,425.88	191,888,791	1,811.35
Nixon	427,260,460,940.50	200,706,052	2,128.79
Nixon / Ford	620,433,000,000.00	209,896,021	2,955.91
Carter	907,701,000,000.00	218,035,164	4,163.09
Reagan Term 1	1,572,266,000,000.00	227,224,681	6,919.43
Reagan Term 2	2,602,377,701,041.16	235,824,902	11,035.21
Bush Sr	4,064,620,655,521.66	244,498,982	6,624.28
Clinton Term 1	5,224,810,939,135.73	254,994,517	20,489.90
Clinton Term 2	5,674,178,209,886.86	265,189,794	21,396.67
Bush Jr Term 1	7,379,052,696,330.32	281,421,906	26,220.61
Bush Jr Term 2	9,007,653,372,262.48	293,655,404	30,674.23

Those figures are crooked. They hold people liable for debt accrued before people could vote, or before people were even born. Whether by voting or by not voting a person gives consent, it is impossible to give or withhold consent when a person is not able to vote, whether by virtue of age or not yet existing.

A more honest figure would include the debt accrued only during that term, and dividing it up among the population in various ways. Using term debt (debt accumulated during the term of the president) instead of national debt (debt accumulated by all previous presidents) and dividing it up among the population in various ways different results emerge.

Using the assumption that both the contradictory arguments are true, that all eligible voters are responsible, then dividing up the debt of each term by the eligible voters of each term yeilds the following results.

President	Term Debt	Share by Voting Age
Kennedy / Johnson	25,382,138,408.93	232.52
Johnson	35,865,507,168.58	314.36
Nixon	79,682,054,514.62	662.21
Nixon / Ford	193,172,539,059.50	1,372.20
Carter	287,268,000,000.00	1,886.08
Reagan Term 1	664,565,000,000.00	4,037.53
Reagan Term 2	1,030,111,701,041.16	5,904.37
Bush Sr	1,462,242,954,480.50	8,000.10
Clinton Term 1	1,160,190,283,614.07	6,121.44
Clinton Term 2	449,367,270,751.13	2,286.73
Bush Jr Term 1	1,704,874,486,443.46	8,283.53
Bush Jr Term 2	1,628,600,675,932.16	7,360.68

Thus someone who only able to vote in the 2004 election is only to be held liable for the $7,360.68 of debt accumulated during that term, while someone who was able to vote for the first time in 1992 is to be held liable for $24,052.37 of the debt. Those who are not able to vote are not liable for any of it, which should come as a relief to anyone under the age of eighteen.

If that is too broad, and only those who actually registered to vote are counted a different outcome is the result.

President	Term Debt	By Registered
Kennedy / Johnson	25,382,138,408.93	391.50
Johnson	35,865,507,168.58	486.54
Nixon	79,682,054,514.62	975.80
Nixon / Ford	193,172,539,059.50	1,984.75
Carter	287,268,000,000.00	2,734.90
Reagan Term 1	664,565,000,000.00	5,878.83
Reagan Term 2	1,030,111,701,041.16	8,297.27
Bush Sr	1,462,242,954,480.50	11,570.24
Clinton Term 1	1,160,190,283,614.07	8,669.71
Clinton Term 2	449,367,270,751.13	3,073.40
Bush Jr Term 1	1,704,874,486,443.46	10,899.25
Bush Jr Term 2	1,628,600,675,932.16	9,316.94

Thus someone who was only registered to vote in the 2004 election is only to be held liable for the $9,316.94 of debt accumulated during that term, while someone who was registered to vote since 1992 is to be held liable for $31,959.29 of the debt.

Finally if you only count those who voted, there is yet another outcome.

President	Term Debt	By Voted
Kennedy / Johnson	25,382,138,408.93	368.72
Johnson	35,865,507,168.58	507.69
Nixon	79,682,054,514.62	1,088.38
Nixon / Ford	193,172,539,059.50	2,485.54
Carter	287,268,000,000.00	3,522.35
Reagan Term 1	664,565,000,000.00	7,681.48
Reagan Term 2	1,030,111,701,041.16	11,117.99
Bush Sr	1,462,242,954,480.50	15,964.28
Clinton Term 1	1,160,190,283,614.07	11,112.39
Clinton Term 2	449,367,270,751.13	4,658.76
Bush Jr Term 1	1,704,874,486,443.46	16,146.74
Bush Jr Term 2	1,628,600,675,932.16	13,316.99

Thus someone who first voted in the 2004 election is only to be held liable for the $13,316.99 of debt accumulated during that term, while someone who was registered to vote since 1992 is to be held liable for $45234.88 of the debt.

These all operate on the principle that there can be no taxation without representation.

While the these calculations do increase the debt per person on older voters all fo them hold younger voters to be not responsible for taxes levied without their representation. Assuming an average age of 40, enabling a person to cast their first vote in the race between Dukakis and Bush, that gives an of age debt of $32,052.48, a registered debt of $43,529.53, and a voted debt of $61,199.16.

But they also leave one third of the debt unaccountable. One third of the debt is owed by absolutely nobody.

Even further and more advanced calculation would also reveal that a good share of the older debts are not owed by anybody, because some who voted for older presidents have died and therefore so has their share. So the 232.52, 368.72, or 368.72 owed by each person who could be held accountable in the election of Kennedy isn't shifted from those who have died to those who haven't, but is instead to be written off as the debtor is deceased.

This does make an excellent argument for not voting and not registering to vote when the system itself is corrupt. It is also very sad that two thirds of the national debt occured within most peoples lifetimes, and that is true in both regular and constant dollars.

Of course the best argument is that the debt actually belongs to those who accrued it, the Senators and Representatives who voted for it and the Presidents who signed for it. Let the debt be divided up amongst the gang of 540.