Looking at the chart on page 301 in the textbook, I found it interesting that the amount of our taxes going towards Interest on Public Debt decreased from 31.1% in 1800 to 8.6% in 2008. I would think that it would be the opposite due to that our public debt is now over 10 trillion dollars. Now we aren't paying as much attention to paying off our debt as much as before, but I think it should become more of a priority to do so. The reason, it seems to me, why our taxes aren't focused on paying our interest on debt is because now we pay for other things too, such as social security. The government wasn't in charge of taking care of social security and other things before, so there is a more range in what we need to cover.
I know I have talked on the topic of debt and taxes already, but when I read this I found it really interesting and felt like discussing the chart. Some other aspects of the chart other then the interest on public debt, is how much is put into our military, veterans benefits and other things. What stood out to me was the differences in percentages of what taxes went into. In the 1800's and 1900's there was no need to pay for health, social security and public welfare because these things weren't taken care of by the government in those days. Now they are, so our taxes have to become more split between everything. Education, scientific and medical research, transportation, and foreign aid are all now in the picture too. This is because now we have the means to do these things, which before we didn't. Its good that our taxes go to these things, which all together add to about 56% of our taxes. But, as more of our taxes go to these things, our percent for the amount of taxes we have going to interest on our public debt decreases. I think that our taxes going towards paying off our public debts should be increased so that we can get out of debt sooner, if we ever do get out.
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