Pic.TV’s Preview of An Inconvenient Debt
While our attention is currently abroad in Beijing, watching our fellow citizens win medals left and right (take that France!) we are also keeping an eye on that state of affairs here at home. There is another race coming up soon but won’t commence until long after the Olympics are over: the Presidential Race. This will be our version of China versus South Korea in table tennis (no really, its supposed to be a big deal: China was supposed to win but because of this….not so much. Its a revenge match!) and there is a movie coming out that is going to bring to light an issue that the candidates can’t ignore. Current.pic.tv has done a preview of the new movie “I.O.U.S.A.” and we would like to share it with you…
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An Inconvenient Debt
August 11, 2008 by Colin Lovett @ Current.pic.tv
New movie tries to raise awareness of what we owe
by Colin Lovett - PIC Current Producer
There are no chase scenes. There is no romance. And the hero is balding. With glasses. But a new movie opening this month may be the scariest of the summer. And it’s all about the national debt.
Courtesy I.O.U.S.A the movie
I.O.U.S.A is basically a call for Americans to understand how bad our budget problems have gotten and how much worse things could be if we don’t fix the problem. Watch the trailer here.
The movie is being promoted by Pete Peterson Foundation, who is using $1 billion of his own money to raise awareness of the budget deficit.
The current debt is about $9.5 trillion. But Mr. Peterson’s group says it could shoot up to $53 trillion if you count future debts such as paying out social security and medicare to 78 million baby boomers. At this price, every American man, woman and child would be on the hook for $175,000. I don’t know about you, but that check would bounce if I wrote it.
They argue that all is not lost, but we must begin making tough choices now on spending, saving and taxes.
The federal debt is pretty simple to understand but can be very difficult to solve in practice. We as a country take on debt when Congress and the President spend more than they take in in taxes.
Much of this debt is currently paid for from social security payroll taxes. We now take in more social security payments than we send out. But in a few years, that will change and we will need to find ways to make payments to millions of baby boomers as they leave the workforce.
If that’s still confusing, take a look at the way School House Rock explains it:
A lot our debt also comes from borrowing from foreign countries. One day, we will need to pay them back.
There is little that any individual can do about the national debt. But we should all be concerned about it because the hard decisions that will have to be made will affect all of us. Higher taxes, lower spending and higher interest rates are just some of the possibilities. If we make this a concern, maybe they’ll make a movie sequel: Debt Crushers. I hope the next one has some explosions.
Alternet, an alternative news site, has this take on I.O.U.S.A..
“Facing Up” is a great non-partisan site devoted to the federal budget. If you have debt problems in your personal life, our sister site The Beehive, has great resources to help you manage your budget.
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We can learn a great deal about this issue and apply it to our own fiscal policies, one element you can take away is to not spend more than you make. The other is to think about the future. What else can a movie like this tell us?
This movie is going to be an eye opener as it is approachable and will explain how such a massive spending deficit has occured. My only hope is that its not too late and that this doesn’t set an example for our future. Or else we aren’t going to be able to go to the Olympics next time.
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Comments
Colin, happy to oblige! I am excited to see this movie as well…on the one hand I wish it was longer but Frank made a good point saying that it might not be as accepted by the mainstream public if it was longer unfortunately. Have you seen the preview for “W.” yet? Looks interesting as well…
Thanks guys for sharing our post with your readers. This is an issue that is not getting nearly enough attention right now. Anyone remember Perot and his crazy charts from 1992? We stopped paying attention to this mess after the late 90s. What we need as a public is another kick in the pants to start thinking about this and demanding real solutions.
Cheers,
Colin