United States the "wealthiest nation on earth"

[TristanLuigi]

that's the thing, (likely) nobody here has studied government and therefore all opinions in this thread are meaningless

I suppose.

The entire world is pretty much in a giant hole right now, and since nobody's outside of it we can't fill them in.

[Ad Bot]

[.::Taboo::.]

wow if only we had gotten a masters in teaching gov't classes like you did mr professor teacher

i'm beginning to realize that these jokes are only funny when there's less thought put into them

Then say something meaningful and maybe you can turn this discussion around and educate these clearly uneducated... teenagers.
Because hey, you are a teacher as you claim to be. This should be no problem for you.

i can't tell if this one was a joke or if you're actually a year late

[Nickelob Ultra]

i can't tell if this one was a joke or if you're actually a year late

he probably didn't get the memo, but regardless either say something mr. oh-so-gov't-educated, or don't say anything.  nobody likes a sidelines commentator going "you're all dumb lol".

[TristanLuigi]

Can someone explain to me why this doesn't equal zero?

Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm assuming it's because each country borrowed from others and then used that money, so those countries didn't have money, and neither did their suppliers, so now everyone's out of money because it's all in people's pockets or in the forms of tanks, missiles, and other objects.

[Zelothix]

i'm beginning to realize that these jokes are only funny when there's less thought put into them
i can't tell if this one was a joke or if you're actually a year late

[Tyler66]

i can't tell if this one was a joke or if you're actually a year late

It's certainly no joke, and I have no idea what you mean by "a year late".
So as the uneducated teenager I am; I'm missing something.

[Mysteroo]

http://www.upworthy.com/9-out-of-10-americans-are-completely-wrong-about-this-mind-blowing-fact-2?g=2

Maybe our economy is one of the healthiest in the world, but that doesn't mean it's doing good by any means. And our government itself is definitely not the wealthiest on earth.

if you want change, make change happen.  i don't want to come off as criticizing you harshly or anything, but political change doesn't happen on an online forum.

You're right, but at the same time I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. For one thing I'm not especially interested in politics, so I could never drum up the motivation to study politics enough to become a reliable source in other people's eyes. Therefore I'd never be heard, and nothing I could ever do would help the situation. I wish over time I could get out and make a difference, but it's not realistic in my position. And at this point, I don't know if anything will really be able to turn that kind of enormous debt around

Besides, I really just wanted to rant and see what kind of discussion came from it anyways, these forums are always good for that sort of thing

Can someone explain to me why -- doesn't equal zero?

I'd say it's because of our economic system in general. Banks never have as much money as is put into them because they spend it. They only have a fraction of the money that everyone using the bank has in their accounts. Similarly, if the entire world runs on this system, then we're going to have a lot of money that just doesn't exist in the real world but is added to the numbers

[.::Taboo::.]

It's certainly no joke, and I have no idea what you mean by "a year late".
So as the uneducated teenager I am; I'm missing something.

musta been before your time

[Tyler66]

musta been before your time

Oh, a drama topic. No wonder why I missed it.

[Nickelob Ultra]

http://www.upworthy.com/9-out-of-10-americans-are-completely-wrong-about-this-mind-blowing-fact-2?g=2

Maybe our economy is one of the healthiest in the world, but that doesn't mean it's doing good by any means. And our government itself is definitely not the wealthiest on earth.

no i'd say it's doing okay at least, but some people might say that our current growth is being "propped up" like a cardboard display and that we may have another economic blowout.

[TristanLuigi]

So here we are, the United States, at $17 trillion, but Canada - just as wealthy as us, I think - hasn't even reached $1T. In fact, they're only at $0.64 trillion (or 636 billion). I think that kind of goes to show how messed up our government is, if we can rack up that much debt while other countries that are just as wealthy don't even have a twentieth of our debt.

[Wispfire]

So here we are, the United States, at $17 trillion, but Canada - just as wealthy as us, I think - hasn't even reached $1T. In fact, they're only at $0.64 trillion (or 636 billion). I think that kind of goes to show how messed up our government is, if we can rack up that much debt while other countries that are just as wealthy don't even have a twentieth of our debt.

Canada's played it smart, and not send it's full military to fight wars half way around the globe. It also doesn't give half it's money to countries in bloody civil wars.

[Frankie²]

Canada's played it smart, and not send it's full military to fight wars half way around the globe. It also doesn't give half it's money to countries in bloody civil wars.

why are you talking like a british person
no one says "bloody"

[TristanLuigi]

Actually, the number I gave for Canada is incorrect.
It's even less, because 1 CAD = 0.97 USD. So converting it to USD, their debt is 618 billion. I'm going to make a pie chart of the shared debt of the world, separated into countries.

[Caribou]

Imagine how wealthy we'd be once we pay off our trillion dollar debt, OY vey.