The Outstanding Public Debt as of 30 Mar 2008 at 06:15:22 PM GMT is: $9,417,087,048,915. The estimated population of the United States is 303,718,028 so each citizen’s share of this debt is $31,006.02.
Source: Search for “debt” in Google and look @ the US National Debt Clock.

The War in IRAQ is far from over. Bush is spending billions of dollars there and wasting Americas’ taxpayer money. Future governments will likely continue this game of racking up billions and billions more of debt. How will they be able to pay for this ever increasing debt? There are 2 ways:

i) Print more money which seems to be Ben Bernanke’s favourite thing to do during these volatile stock market times. This will just lead to more inflation and decreasing purchase power parity.

ii) Raise taxes, increasing the burden on the average American consumer.

Therefore, the Roth IRA in my opinion is a lot better than Traditional IRAs. Here’s an interesting statement from http://www.definerothira.com

By making after-tax contributions to your Roth IRA, you will not owe a single dime of tax to Uncle Sam when you retire and withdraw your money. This adds the advantage of being able to grow your earnings tax-free not for the government, but for yourself! Which retirement plan is therefore the right choice for you? Well it depends on your personal situation. If you expect to be in a higher tax bracket when you retire, it is better off to pay the taxes right now and grow your savings tax-free in a Roth IRA. Because a Roth IRA holds after-tax dollars, you can maximize your contributions by adding greater tax leverage to your retirement savings.

You guys agree/disagree? Let’s hear some constructive criticism!