From Harvard’s Institute of Politics comes the sobering reality of this nation’s astronomical debt — $16.7 trillion and rising.

To be sure, there are plenty of scary statistics to back up the deficit hawks.  For example, the gross U.S. debt is $16.7 trillion today, composed of $11.9 trillion in debt held by the public and $4.8 trillion in intra-governmental holdings.  (For further details, see the ARUSA article on federal debt and deficit.)

This comes out to about $53,000 for every inhabitant of the United States, including children, the elderly, the unemployed, and others with limited ability to work and few financial resources.  If averaged only among employed Americans, including the working poor, the debt per person comes to over $123,000.