May 25, 2010: I.O.U.S.A.
When asking typical Americans on the street if they know the US national debt, some of them guess in the millions, and even the high guesses are still less than $100 billion. This is not a good sign. The US national debt is now over $10 trillion. I.O.U.S.A. examines how and why the debt continues to grow.
I.O.U.S.A. has the wisdom to look beyond the budget and even beyond dollars to explain clearly how this is not a simple problem to fix, and not one which arose out of the blue or over a short time. Broken down into four major parts, the film examines deficits in the budget, savings, the balance of payments, and leadership. Too often, analyses of the fiscal troubles of the USA, and other nations for that matter, don’t pay attention to global trends in manufacturing, or a lack of political willpower, as factors in the continuing escalating spending. But the fact is that continued reliance on old economic and political models of short term thinking and vote-buying can only lead to disaster.
The rational analysis in I.O.U.S.A. leads to the conclusion, without question, that there will be budget deficits for the foreseeable future, based in large part on examination of huge programs such as Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid (the health care systems for the elderly and those with low incomes). Released in 2008, the film pre-dates Barack Obama’s election and subsequent passing of legislation to bring US universal health care closer to reality, but it’s all still expensive, regardless of who is paying.
It sounds to me like the US is screwed. It’s entirely possible that most of the rest of the developed world is similarly screwed, so at least we’ll have some relative perspective when it all comes tumbling down.
Enjoy the fun while it lasts.
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