I’ve had this idea for quite some time. You turn on the news and here about a $700 bail out to the US financial system. We hear about the $1 billion per day spent in Iraq. What does that mean to you and me? Is the billion a day spent in Iraq equal to a $20 bill to a wealthy american family? What perspective does this all fit into?

So I started to compare each countries Gross Domestic Product or the total amount of economic activity achieved in 12 months by a country.

Then I made an assumption that the top country in the world, at this point the U.S., would correlate to a wealthy American Family that brought in $125,000 per year.  From there a factor was determined and each government expense was plugged into a formula to see how that line item would relate to a ‘wealthy American Family’ earning the arbitrary number of $125k. Below is a breakdown of American Family household income. The top 10% to top 5% fit into the $120k to $150k range. See the chart below.

Then you plug in all the big numbers and you can see what the costs really look like. Here are some highlights?

For a wealthy American Family earning $125,000 year the federal equivalent for spending is as follows;

Education              – $4652 per year
Healthcare             – $8852 per year
Debt Owed Japan   – $5295 total
Debt Owed China  – $4625 total
Debt Owed U.S.     – $69,587 total
Debt Owed ALL     – $93,750 total (this could be equated to credit card debt)

Total Household Equity -        $473,214 (this is basically your house value)
Total Household Mortgages – $107,143

Now for the back up charts. First the national GDP compared to the $125 American Family:

Next the big U.S. federal numbers compared to the ‘real cost’ to a wealthy American Family;

How do we measure up to the rest of the world on the expense side?