2011-11-21

Allow Me to Be the First...

This is destined to become viral in the econo-blogo-sphere. This morning xkcd.com presented a beautiful chart demonstrating the current value of wealth and debt in 2011 dollars. Hold on to this one, folks, because in 20 years we will be surprised at what it shows.

The link is here. The image is below:


What is most interesting to me about this chart is that the value of actual goods and services is absolutely dwarfed by the value of the debts and obligations of the world's governments. If that doesn't prove to everyone in the world that our current governmental spending structures are unsustainable, nothing will.

UPDATE:
The Mises blog posted the graphic.


1 comment:

  1. I like the points you made here.

    Someone said there is the value of all the gold in the world somewhere in there - I don't remember seeing it but it's a huge chart - and that that sum is dwarfed by the value of the world's goods and services - which is an interesting argument against the gold standard (which I don't consider myself smart enough to have a strong opinion on either way)

    But it's definitely a useful chart that I will look at many more times. We may not even have to wait a year, much less 20, to laugh at the EU references...

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