The Perfect Baby Shower Gift: 20 Pounds of Gold

A number of children are given money at birth in the form of opening trust or college funds for them. However, considering the debt load that each child has at the moment of birth, perhaps giving them 20 pounds of gold is a better idea so that they can start life debt free. That will cover their share of the U. S. National Debt and unfunded Social Security and Medicare commitments. Only 20 pounds of gold however, won't also pay for their college or even their graduation gown.

BTW, that amount of gold is almost THREE TIMES the average newborn's weight in gold.

Here's how I came up with the number.

According to the U. S. Treasury, the U. S. National Debit is currently $11.15 trillion. This is the debt for past Congressional spending.

According to this speech given to the Federal Reserve, the total amount of Social Security Benefits and Medicare Benefits that are unfunded is $70 trillion. This is the amount of money the Federal government has committed to paying out after the trust funds run out of money. This is debt for future spending that is committed but for which no funds are available.

This brings us to a grand total of $81.15 trillion of debt.

According to the Federal census folks, there are currently 306,324,670 people in the United States.

So the share per person (share = debt/population) is: $264,915.00

The price of gold as of today in troy ounces is $886.80.

Share per person expressed in troy ounces of gold (ounces = share/price per ounce): 298.731393

Converted to U. S. pounds @ 14.58 troy ounces per U. S. pound = 20.5 pounds of gold bullion.