Buried in debt at 14

The amount of U.S. debt is $14,282,216,958,399. In one minute it will have increased by $7,000,000. As a student and a child I find it an injustice that I’m enslaved by the government and its leaders promising more than they can deliver without spending what they don’t have.

The government has spent more than I’m capable of earning at 14. At 14 I owe $177,000. The government promised the money we gave them with interest. For example, the government has taken 7.5 percent from each citizen’s paycheck for Social Security. They promised that it would be given back to us at the age of 60. That age is now 67.

They pay us back by taking money from younger generations and giving it to the elderly because they spent our money. It’s a cycle. The cycle is starting to fail as people aren’t working, the population is aging, and as costs are going up faster than the amount of money coming in.

Just Social Security will run a deficit starting in 2015.

My parents wanted a better life for their children. The government has already spent my earnings, my children’s earnings and enslaved the nation to debt.

Ashlyn Lewey

Spokane