Hooray poverty!

The U.S. national debt is currently at $10.8 trillion and the 2008 GDP was $14.2 trillion. This means our national debt is 76 percent of our GDP. Additionally, last year the government spent $430 billion on interest payments. In other words, if you made $50,000 last year, your outstanding debt is $38,000, an you paid $1500 on interest payments.

At 76 percent, the U.S. is at the same levels as the early 1950's. Our highest point was 121.7 percent in 1946, and lowest point since WWII was 37 percent in 1981. During the Civil War this percentage was in the high 50s, and during WWI this percentage was in the high 30s.

This percentage was lowest in 1835 and 1836 when Andrew Jackson completely paid off the U.S. national debt. Overall, the U.S. probably was its richest right before the Civil War and right before WWI, when the percentage was in single digits.

Comparatively, other countries National debt as a percentage of their GDP is:
Russia - 6.8%
China - 15.7%
Brazil - 40.7%
United Kingdom - 47.2%
India - 59%
Germany - 62.6%
France - 64.4%
United States - 76% (adjusted for recent bailout)
Japan - 170.4%

And if everyone paid off their debt they would have left,

Russia - $2.08 trillion
China - $6.57 trillion
Brazil - $1.2 trillion
United Kingdom - $1.2 trillion
India - $1.36 trillion
Germany - $1.07 trillion
France - $74.6 billion
United States - $3.4 trillion (adjusted for recent bailout)
Japan - -7.62 trillion

Now, other than the U.S., these numbers have not been adjusted for the recent global recession. While the semantics of the data will change at the end of fiscal 2009, the point of the data will still be the same.

The United States may still have the world's biggest economy, but it no longer has the world's best economy.