Almost every country in the world is in debt.
You cannot take a single flat number and say it "means more" then a corresponding number from another country.
As a percentage of GDP, for example, Canada's Debt is a good 20% higher then the U.S.
Another example:
the U.S's approx Debt as of 30 June 2009 is about 13,450,000,000,000 dollars. (about 43,758 per capita) and it is 94% if their GDP- that is, their Gross Domestic product is <higher> then the entire debt.
as of 30 June 2009, the U.K external debt lists at 9,088,000,000,000, which is 147,060 per capita, and a WHOPPING 416% of their GDP; that is, their debt is over 4 times their Gross Domestic product.
Now I ask, who is more likely to get out of debt? The country whose GDP is higher then their debt or the country whose debt is 4 times their GDP? Perhaps there should be a novelty time-based counter that counts U.K debt clock?
I've found the issue of foreign debt quite curious, since almost every country has some debt- so the question is- WHO is the creditor? you would think that if, say, Canada borrowed a few million from the U.S and then later the U.S borrowed a few million from Canada (well, it's not direct, it would occur via export/import value difference I imagine) but, you would think that they would consider it even, but somehow both countries have netted themselves more debt? (edit: appears I have confused foreign debt with the trade deficit) It's all quite confusing. I doubt anybody truly understands *censored* it all means. Maybe it's a ploy by government accountants to make sure they keep their job; enforce all sorts of ridiculous debt-related rules so that no country can ever get out of debt, and considering no country seems to NOT have debt, the question (as I noted) is who are they indebted to? It certainly can't be other countries, since those other countries are indebted to them and other countries. In fact, it seems every country owes every country but at the same time no country owes any other country. *censored* this confusing financial talk. Perhaps there are aliens involved here somewhere, since if this external debt is not of Earth origin clearly we are borrowing from some other planet.
