$13,000,000,000,000

Man, it's a good thing the national debt doesn't mean a damn thing. It's a good thing that deficits don't matter.

Otherwise, thirteen trillion dollars of debt might be some cause for concern, now that it reached some 88% of our annual GDP. But we've got nothing to worry about, slick. The national debt is as meaningless and as useless as the oil spill volume numbers coming from BP. It means nothing, and I say let it climb to fourteen trillion. Four hundred trillion; it doesn't matter.

Remember: the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is generating a substantial slice of our national GDP. Think -- Ann Thompson along with a dozen cameramen and staffers of NBC renting Louisiana hotel rooms to report from the site, along with their appetites; big pharma selling all those recreational prescription drugs marketed directly to NBC evening news consumers; all those lawyers who will generate GDP over the next seventeen years by filing lawsuit after lawsuit on behalf of lost shrimp producers (lawyers who will earn many times more than shrimpers would ever earn actually working); oil boom manufacturing; oily bird cleaning; Bobby Jindal's air time getting a national platform for his run in 2016. Talk about productivity! Sheesh!

Compared to all the unemployed , man, oil spills are very good for the GDP.

Here's another. If I go out and spend $1.19 to buy 80 yards of dental floss I contribute less than $0.37 per month to GDP, whereas if I don't take preventative measures I'd contribute thousands via root canals, dentist co-pays, insurance billing department staffers, temporary crowns, amalgam fillings, wear and tear on my vehicle to shuttle me to my multiple appointments...and they'll still floss my teeth at the end of the cleaning.

If I keep my diabetes in check I will only contribute a hundred thousand over my lifetime to national GDP, whereas if I let it bolt to seed I'd contribute eight times that through bi-weekly dialysis, amputation surgery and long term care facilities.

I really have to wonder how much of our $14 trillion dollar economy is comprised of shit like this...