The Treasury Department defines the debt ceiling as “the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments.”

So what does this have to do with the average high school student?

With the current national debt surpassing 16 trillion dollars, every American under the age of eighteen will owe some $216, 102 in their working lifetime. While this is not a one-time- payment, America’s youth will be forced to slowly make up the financial shortfall of previous generations. Future workers will likely feel these effects by way of higher taxes and inflation.  Rising from one trillion dollars before the Reagan administration, the debt has quickly raced to the astronomical 16 trillion America faces today.

So how much money is sixteen trillion dollars?  A blog supported by American Thinker reports that it is “enough to carpet the entire states of Delaware, Rhode Island, and Florida in dollar bills.”  Alternatively, a stack of 16 trillion dollar bills, laid flat on top of each other, packed down with no space between them would go past Mt. Everest, out of the stratosphere, past the international space station, past the moon, around the far side, and back. Twice.

According to an article from the AARP the debt is so high because, “The government has been increasing its spending — particularly on such items as Social Security, Medicare and, for a time, national defense — at a rate faster than revenues have been growing. Also, there is a snowball effect resulting from each increase in the debt.  As the debt expands, so do the interest payments. In addition, the high inflation and interest rates of the 1970s and early 1980s contributed to the rapidly growing debt. Even with inflation and interest rates declining in recent years, the debt has not been reduced because spending has continued to outpace revenues.” This means, that lately the U.S.A has been spending a great deal more than it is making. And, we are going to continue spending until the country’s economy can make enough money to support itself from those increased tax revenues.

There are a number of ways to restore the economy to a good condition and regulate the national debt back to an acceptable level. The AFLCIO says, “The first step in such a high-wage strategy is to put America back to work because high unemployment keeps wages down. Our goal should be ‘full employment’ meaning everybody who wants to work should be able to find a decent job. The second step of a high-wage strategy is to restore workers’ ability to bargain collectively, which will raise wages, reduce economic inequality, fuel consumer demand and help rebuild the middle class. The third step of a high-wage strategy is to make things in America again. We can do that by eliminating our trade deficit, ending overvaluation of the dollar, combating currency manipulation by our trading partners, eliminating all incentives for offshoring [sic] in our tax code, enhancing Buy America safeguards, aggressively enforcing our trade laws and promoting a Global New Deal to help our trading partners rely on domestic incomes, rather than trade surpluses, as their source of economic growth. The fourth step of a high-wage strategy is to shrink our bloated financial sector and make it serve the real economy again. We can do that by re-regulating Wall Street, eliminating the tax benefit for leveraged buyouts and imposing a modest tax on financial speculation.”

This simply means we need to get people back in work. Anyone who wants to work should be able to work. Unemployment stagnates tax revenue which is bad for the economy. America needs money flowing through the markets and contributing to American wealth and a larger tax base. Many like the AFLCIO believe that collective bargaining through unions will raise wages and help rebuild the middle class. Further, developing an economy founded on American made goods can help replace outsourcing and will benefit the United States. The AFLCIO says we need Wall Street to play a bigger role in our economy, and we should knock out the tax benefit from company buyouts and placing a regular tax on it.

Alternatively, what the government has been doing is cutting taxes for the wealthy in order for them to form businesses. More businesses, more work. More people in jobs, which is precisely what the government requires to bring down the soaring national debt. Though, not everyone agrees with this, notably an article from CNBC which cites a recent study from the Congressional Research Service that offers, “Cutting taxes for the wealthy does not generate faster economic growth, but may widen the income gap between the rich and the rest,” and that “there is little evidence over the past 65 years that tax cuts for the highest earners are associated with savings, investment or productivity growth.”

Additionally, the Washington Post offers “White House officials said that Obama’s budget would cut Medicare and Social Security and ask for less tax revenue than he has previously sought. The budget, will fully incorporate the offer Obama made to House Speaker John Boehner during December’s “fiscal cliff” talks — which included $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction through spending cuts and tax increases,” a decision which baffled many Democrats and Republicans and upset the people. Although everyone hates paying their taxes, President Barack Obama had to raise them in order to fill in part of that gaping hole in the system that is the national debt.

Although the United States is seeing some hard times in terms of the economy in our era, hopefully we will see better years coming and a better economy for the future.