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Britons in £2 trillion Debt

The United Kingdom is about £2 trillion in debt - which equates to £33,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.

Removing the 40% of the population who don't/can't work, are children or retired means every working person owes about £47,600. If you then remove from the equation the 60% of that figure who are ordinary working people struggling to make ends meet, the remaining 16.8 million people each owe £119,000.

By a strange coincidence, the figure of £2 trillion is also the amount that has been given in City bonuses in the last 10 years. :mad:
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Comments

  • ad44downey
    ad44downey Posts: 2,246 Forumite
    I thought the £1.3 trillion worth of liabilities was bad but it gets worse by the minute.
    Krusty & Phil Madoff, 1990 - 2007:
    "Buy now because house prices only ever go UP, UP, UP."
  • epz_2
    epz_2 Posts: 1,859 Forumite
    who do we owe is the more interesting question, its like the ode saying that if you owe the bank £20,000 then you have a problem, if you owe them £2,000,000,000,000 then ...

    The suspicion I am getting is all this money that was magically created by every countries banks has been lent to every other country and a lot of it could cancel itself out once inflation kicks off.
  • Why stop at £2tn when the number is fictional - the OP should have said £3tn.

    As I understand it the official figure is now £1.3tn on the methodology that UK banks under the control of the government have no assets and all money loaned by UK banks will default. Yes, and perhaps the moon is made of cheese after all.
  • zappahey
    zappahey Posts: 2,254 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    the 60% of that figure who are ordinary working people struggling to make ends meet

    Did you just make that up or do you have evidence to support it?
    What goes around - comes around
  • Pssst
    Pssst Posts: 4,803 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    No no ,its even worse...! someone owes my £119,000 because i dont owe anything..!!
  • Generali
    Generali Posts: 36,411 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    It depends what you want to include.

    Unfunded Civil Service pensions. Not included in the official Government debt figures. Cash liability? Approx £1,000,000,000,000
    PFI. Not included in the official Government debt figures. Total liability? Aprrox £128,000,000,000. Cash liability? Approx £30,000,000,000
    Nationalised bank liabilities? Included in Government debt. Ok, perhaps some of the assets should be offset against this. How much though? What value would you ascribe to mortgages in arrears or credit card debt with missed payments?
    Future state pension commitments. Not included. Cash liability? £46,000,000,000
    Future healthcare commitments. Not included. Cash liability? I'm not aware of any credible calculation.

    If we're to have 'transparency' by including bank assets in the mix, then we should also include genuine future liabilities such as the NHS for older people, state pension, Civil Service pension and PFI.
  • ad9898_3
    ad9898_3 Posts: 3,858 Forumite
    As Generali said, a lot of this is unknown, however what is absolutely certain is the tax payers of this country will remember the name Gordon Brown for the next 40 years, and not in a favourable way either.
  • purch
    purch Posts: 9,865 Forumite
    Why stop at £2tn when the number is fictional - the OP should have said £3tn.

    Keeping it in round figures will help.

    Makes it easier to work out how much we all owe when the bailiffs come knocking !!!!
    'In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are Consequences.'
  • ad9898_3
    ad9898_3 Posts: 3,858 Forumite
    Pssst wrote: »
    No no ,its even worse...! someone owes my £119,000 because i dont owe anything..!!

    Me neither, nor my mum, nor my sister, someone is in deep sh*t somewhere.:D
  • Generali
    Generali Posts: 36,411 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ad9898 wrote: »
    Me neither, nor my mum, nor my sister, someone is in deep sh*t somewhere.:D

    That reminds of of the old Tommy Cooper(?) joke. Goes along the lines of:

    They reckon one in 5 people is Chinese. Well there's five in my family, there's me, my mum and Dad, my brother Chang and my sister Katie.

    Dad says it's my brother but I think it's Mum.
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