The penny drops
Reading this post will cost you about 10 pence.
According to figures that have been described as optimistic, the UK government is set to borrow an extra £700 billion over the next five years.
There are countless figures and articles trying to put this in perspective using various techniques, including writing the full £700,000,000,000 number, or saying that interest payments for this amount will be more than the UK budget for defence.
There are then of course those who recall those bankers were deemed evil for borrowing too much with no real plan for repaying.
I decided instead to do this to understand the concept of time:
60 minutes x 24 hours = 1,440 minutes in a day.
x 365 = 525,600 minutes in a year
x 5 = 2,628,000 minutes in 5 years
And this to break down the numbers:
£700,000 million is the new debt (note the word new, this is to be added to existing debt)
26 million income tax payers in the UK
i.e. £26,923 new debt for each tax payer.
And then worked out that
£26923/2,628,000 minutes= £0.01 per minute
Equals 1p a minute
Every UK tax payer (me including) will borrow 1p a minute every minute, even when they sleep for five years.
And paying it back will also cost interest.
And that's also optimistic.
It's like picking up the phone and leaving it connected for five years.
Did the penny drop?