Forum menu
UK government annual income approx £521 Billion
UK government annual [s]income[/s]expenditure approx £684 Billion
I think that's what you meant to say...
you forgot growth. Which may be scarce right now but in a year or two we could be in a few percent again, which would make an enormous difference to your sums.
True, hence the reason the debt has been allowed to get so large. Still won't be easy with the moderate growth forecast for the foreseeable future.
How long would the average punter last before somebody tore their credit cards up?
A very long time if the lender was in it for the long term, confident that the punter would never die, confident that the punter's income would increase beyond inflation over the years and most importantly that the punter would keep paying the interest. Banks don't want the cash sat in their vaults, they want the cash working for them - eg getting interest paid.
That's essentially the situation with us. Of course the issue is if we don't pay it back then the next time there's an economic crisis/big war/etc THEN we'll be in trouble as we may not be able to borrow enough again.