How much is $17 trillion? Visualized for reference.

[Beegs]

Really like this thread..... John, I love your writing style, easy to read, polished and to the point. You are very effective in getting your point across. I wish you were "on my side"

I am self-employed, almost always have been and it has been difficult to "make money" due to everything going UP in price. Tires, parts, insurance, groceries, utility bills...you name it and it has for the most part gone UP.

Article in my local paper yesterday: "Water and sewer bills to rise 7%" Great, I own a four unit and am paying a fortune as it is....AND rents in the area are NOT going up to offset. Oh and the government has been buying homes, spending 300K+ to remodel them and turn around and put them on the market for $159K...........that makes it real easy to compete!

I have lived with debt and without debt and will take without any day of the week. Study the people around you...an alarming number of people have sort of done the same thing: When loans were easy to come by, they maxed out, bought all the toys, went on vacation and partied like rock stars. Now upside down on home loans, toys go first, credit cards get maxed, 401K gets sucked dry, stop payments on the house and then don't ever answer the phone because it's the collections company looking for cash. I am seeing this happen over and over, herd mentality. For the last 5 or 6 years I have been buying up all the stuff they can't afford anymore and have been making good money flipping it, BUT in the last 6-8 months things have changed, it's almost impossible to sell stuff, it has to be a steal of a deal. It's almost like money has been snuffed out and people are just hanging on by a thread.

Strange times....