Uncharted Territory

Comparing America's Outstanding National Debt to its Gross Domestic Product, we find that in 1900 the outstanding debt only came to 10.4% of GDP.

In 1910 outstanding debt came to only 7.9% of GDP.

Then partly because of World War I, by 1920 outstanding debt came to 29.3% of GDP.

But by 1930 a lot of debt had been paid off, and outstanding debt was down to 17.8% of GDP.

Then because of the Great Depression reducing tax revenues, and FDR's "New Deal" ramping up federal government spending, in 1940 outstanding debt went up to 42.4% of GDP.

On account of war spending associated with World War II, in 1950 outstanding debt went up to 87.6% of GDP.

But very significantly this debt was greatly reduced by the time we got to 1960, by which time outstanding debt was down to 54.4% of GDP.

Then in 1970 outstanding debt was down even further to 35.7% of GDP. 

This was certainly high by the standards of the first couple decades of the 20th Century, as well as by the standards of all of the 19th Century other than the Civil War and its aftermath. 

But it still showed willingness on people's part at that time to actually not just "break even" in economically good years, but to actually PAY OFF a significant amount of the old debt.

As will be seen, the economic good times of the 1990's didn't lead to a single penny in net outstanding debt being paid off.

In 1980 outstanding debt decreased slightly to 35.6% of GDP.

By 1990 the deficit spending policies of Ronald Reagan, policies inspired by the delusions of a madman named Laffer, helped outstanding debt increase back up to 55.7% of GDP.

Then the boom times of the Clinton years in the 1990's actually involved outstanding debt increasing, in spite of all his meaningless crowing about "balancing the budget", to 57% of GDP in 2000.

Incredibly, the relatively peaceful 2000's saw the largest decadal leap in unpaid debt since World War II, as outstanding debt increased to 92.7% of GDP by 2010.