Thought for the Day ... Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics, enjoy!

"Blessed are the Young for they shall inherit the National Debt"

Herbert Hoover (President of USA 1929 - 1933)

I came across this quotation and was just wondering, what was the national debt Hoover was talking about and how much more Blessed are the Young today?

This is what I came up with

National Debt of USA in 1929 was $17 billion, by the time Hoover's presidency was over it was $23 billion, not a bad increase of 35% in 4 years in office! 

Today the National Debt of USA is approximately $20,000 billion. (23 x 869 times as much!)

Now GDP in 1929 (The year of the Stock Market Crash - one of them anyway) was $105 billion so the debt equated to 16% of GDP. At the end of Hoover being in office National Debt was $57 billion or 39% of GDP.  Today we are up to USA National Debt being 105% of GDP $18675.  So if my calculations are correct since 1929 GDP is 177 times more but debt is 869 times more. Yikes and Hoover was one of the worst offenders for percentage increase while in office! It has occurred to me that he was laughing at the Young with his famous quotation. What a sad state of affairs.

I have to credit the location from which I lifted these stats, take a look it is quite an interesting read!

https://www.thebalance.com/national-debt-by-year-compared-to-gdp-and-major-events-3306287

Let's take a quick look at the UK stats for the same period.

We started the 20th Century with a National Debt of around 30% of GDP but after the First World War debt increased to over 200% of GDP wow!!! this fell to about 25% in by 1990 but now stands at about 80%. 

Today it is £1,824 billion and growing at the rate of  £5170 per second ... you are gonna love this link!

http://www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/

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