Re: Government math (was Re: The End of Privacy ?)

mark@unicorn.com
Thu, 9 Jul 1998 05:03:30 -0700 (PDT)

VirgilT7@aol.com wrote:
>Basically, there is a surplus if the funds brought in exceed the funds
>expended, and there is a deficit if the funds brought in are less than the
>funds expended. The debt is the sum total of all surpluses minus all
>deficits.

So, given that the debt is $175 billion larger, there's a $175 billion deficit, right?

>So of course one can have surpluses when one has debt.

Uh-huh, true but utterly irrelevant. You can have a surplus and have decreasing debts, but you can't (by your own logic above) have a surplus when the debt *increases* by $175 billion.

So where is this mythical surplus?

Mark