You're right, I really should run the ACTUAL numbers shouldn't I? They're actually much worse than I thought (for the USA).
Australian GDP (est.) AUD 1,374 Billion.
Australian Federal debt. AUD 263 Billion.
19% Debt to GDP (Federal only).
USA GDP (est.) 15.6 Trillion USD
USA Federal debt. 16.5 Trillion USD
106% Debt to GDP (Federal only).
As I said though, our federal government receives much higher tax revenues, so a direct comparison like this is irrelevant because the same amount of debt-to-gdp will necessarily take longer to pay off by the one who is receiving less of the GDP as their budget revenues (in this case the USA). In other words, we (Australians) would pay off 106% Federal-level debt to GDP much faster.
If you include state and local debts, then the total public debt in Australia jumps to about 30% of GDP. In many ways this figure is more relevant, but it’s rarely used when talking about public debt, especially so with the USA. It appears the USA’s total public debt is about 19.4 trillion USD (a little less than the 20 I’ve been quoting
), thus total public US debt is 124%. What makes the USA’s debt much worse is the unfunded public liabilities. Here is a good article explaining it. ---> 
Australian GDP (est.) AUD 1,374 Billion.
Australian Federal debt. AUD 263 Billion.
19% Debt to GDP (Federal only).
USA GDP (est.) 15.6 Trillion USD
USA Federal debt. 16.5 Trillion USD
106% Debt to GDP (Federal only).
As I said though, our federal government receives much higher tax revenues, so a direct comparison like this is irrelevant because the same amount of debt-to-gdp will necessarily take longer to pay off by the one who is receiving less of the GDP as their budget revenues (in this case the USA). In other words, we (Australians) would pay off 106% Federal-level debt to GDP much faster.
If you include state and local debts, then the total public debt in Australia jumps to about 30% of GDP. In many ways this figure is more relevant, but it’s rarely used when talking about public debt, especially so with the USA. It appears the USA’s total public debt is about 19.4 trillion USD (a little less than the 20 I’ve been quoting
), thus total public US debt is 124%. What makes the USA’s debt much worse is the unfunded public liabilities. Here is a good article explaining it. --->
