Most of us can’t begin to imagine the gargantuan size of the US national debt (Debt Clock). Few can really even comprehend a billion dollars, let alone a trillion. In an effort wake people up to the cavernous hole that our politicians (both parties are guilty, but the Democrats and Barack Obama take the cake). President Obama added more debt $4.939T in his first 3 years and 2 months in office than President Bush did $4.899T in 8 years, and he more than doubled that by the end of his second term. The national debt is a generational crisis that under the best of circumstances would take us, our children, and their children to pay off.

So how big is Just $17 Trillion?

The Federal Government owns one third of the land in the United States, totaling a whopping 650 million acres. If we forced the Government to sell that land, which equates to over 2 acres for each person in America, we would need over $25,000 per acre to pay off the debt. For reference, the average cost per acre of America’s cropland, the richest in the world, is only $3550/ acre. We would need to get over 7 times that amount per acre to pay off our debt. Of course, the Federal Government would never sell it all, but selling some to American citizens, to pay down the debt, is an excellent start.

For a scary visual of what our debt looks like in $100 bills, click here.