Debt Ownership as Class Warfare

Visibility into how the national debt, held by both the public and the government at the household level, sheds light on why Social Security, rather than payments for interest on the debt, are a concern of so many sponsored advocacy institutions across the political spectrum.

Direct household attribution can be made by calculating  direct bond holdings, income provided by Social Security payments and secondary financial instruments backed with debt assets for each income quintile.

Responsibility to repay the debt is attributed based on personal income tax collection. Payroll taxes create an asset for the payer, so they are not included in the calculation of who owes the debt.  Using 2019 tax data and the national debt as of COB February 15th, 2022. the ratio is $19 of debt owed for every dollar of income tax paid. Note well that the adjusted gross income of the bottom 80% is just over that garnered by the top 10%.

Public Debt by Income Class

The bottom 80% of taxpaying units hold few, if any, public debt assets in the form of Treasury Bonds or Securities or in accounts holding such assets and only take home one-third of adjusted gross income. Their main national debt assets are held on their behalf by the Government. They are owed more debt than they owe through taxes. The next 10% (the middle class), hold more in terms of long term investments and mutual fund and bond assets. They hold a bit under a fifth of social insurance assets.

The top 10% pay more than half of income taxes (the dividing line is about 97.5% - and has been for a while). Asset shares within the top 10% are estimated using the same breakdown as the entire population, that is, the top 1% hold 54% of Federal Reserve and Long Term Investment Assets and 77% of mutual funds and bonds as held by the top 10%. A similar fraction is used to estimate holdings by the top 0.01% - which is consistent to how much income they receive (note that I did not say earn. 

This illustration shows who benefits the most from having a national debt, therefore who has the most to lose through default.