Government debt is about $300bn. That translates to around $14K per person.
Strictly speaking, per person, you're absolutely correct.....but then when it comes to this subject, including all of the tiny babies and children at school, they aren't about to chip in to pay off the debt via taxes. Nor are the elderly.
We've got 4 million kids under 14 who pay no taxes, and a further 2 million adults over 70 who also pay not a lot in taxes. Those 6 million "persons" shouldn't really be included either.
Of course, chipping away at that debt has proven extremely difficult, especially with running all of the necessary health, education, infrastructure and welfare programs.
The call for more funds never ends.
Every single "expert" you speak to, no matter which big spending area of the economy you speak to, all say the same thing. We need massive Govt injections of money to provide better products / services. The demand currently has pushed the Budget waaay into deficit, and all proponents want it to go further into deficit ??
It's nuts. People are not prepared to back off with their demands on Govt services. To hell with the Budget or the debt, doesn't affect them personally. Bring on more debt.....no worries.
Currently, the Govt has been left with huge deficits, the likes of which the country has never seen before. None of the debt is ever going to be paid back until the budget is brought back into surplus. They are currently searching everywhere to trim costs and increase revenues just to get back to the break even point, let alone start addressing paying back the accrued interest and principal debt.
Reducing it down to "every tiny baby" and everyone else simply has to pay back a paltry 14K does no-one any good in coming to terms with grappling with this monster debt.
Australia has never faced this problem before.