This is exactly the wrong sort of visualization. It provides no information other than "big number is big, lol."<p>The US debt is a big number. So big that people have a hard time wrapping their head around it. They need a point of comparison. So what's a good point of comparison for the US debt? Hmm... we could use the federal budget, or GDP, or the world GDP, or the debt of other large nations. Or we could break it down per capita, and compare it to other per-capita things, like income or tax burden. Or... I know! We can convert the thing to hundred dollar bills, and put it next to the statue of liberty! That's a meaningful comparison!
Not a particularly useful exercise. Imagine 100 years from now we've maintained the same debt level. This graph will show just as much information (big numbers are big!) as it does now, but the analytical value of it (if it exists now) will obviously be totally dissipated, as we'll be an order of magnitude richer.<p>A better comparison would be to take a single person, and put the per capita amount of debt in $100 bills next to them. If you want to get really histrionic, do it with a baby. Still, it won't come up past the ankles (around $15,000).<p>This isn't a small amount, but at the same time it's not the end of the world. My college loans come out to that amount, and I barely notice paying them monthly.<p>It's equivalent to having a mortgage-sized to around five times your annual income. An annual income that typically grows 2.5% a year and comes with a machine that prints out money whenever you need it.<p>Edit: typo in Google search, it's more like $50k than $15k. So a bit worse than that analysis would suggest.
For that graphic to be any use at all, it needs to show the size of the US economy in comparison.<p>A $400,000 home loan looks pretty big if you visualize it in 1 cent pieces, but if you put it next to a $100,000 salary it looks pretty reasonable.<p>"US Unfunded Liabilities" is a <i>stupid</i> thing to measure anyway. That's like putting all your household expenses for the next 30 years on mortgage graph. Yes, you will need to pay them, but they aren't a debt at all.<p>Personally, I prefer seeing debt as a percentage of GDP: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt#Measuring_debt_relative_to_gross_domestic_product_.28GDP.29" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt#Measu...</a>
Here's another fun one: <a href="http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-billion-dollar-gram/" rel="nofollow">http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-bil...</a>
The sites creator should watch themselves suggesting people click on the adverts... Good chance they won't end up with the payments, as this breaks nearly all PPC companies ad rules...
It would have made sense to compare that to total GDP or something other than a building, I find it kind of useless as it is. It's big but seriously you're talking about the largest economy in the world. I don't get all the irrational fear this is supposed to engender in the mind of people.
Wait, wait: "Unless the U.S. government fixes the budget, nation's CREDIT CARD debt will topple 15 trillion by Christmas 2011."<p>Is this meaning US <i>consumer</i> credit card debt? If so, that's hardly the US government budget's fault. That one is odd at best.
What's wrong with debt? With loans I was able to speed up my progress. I took loans two times and ready to take it the next time. You'll need just to be certain that you'll pay off. There is risk, but risk is everywhere you do business.
Some other physical comparisons that could have been included are actually the size of stacking 400 million people on top of each other, how big that would be, and also how much food they would eat in their lifetime, and how much oil and/or plastic goods they would consume. Other than that, I agree with a lot of the other comments here, big numbers are big. "I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..." - HHGTTG
al jazeera did a very good video showing the greek debt also using pallets (<a href="http://www.wesoscrewed.com/2011/07/19/pallets-upon-pallets-of-cash-the-greek-debt-visualized/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wesoscrewed.com/2011/07/19/pallets-upon-pallets-o...</a>). there is just something about seeing that amount of money in cash on pallets that makes me sick to my stomach. Talk about a huge hole to climb out of...