Does anyone know how long it took the US to pay off the indebtedness

[texanshatingbush]

...incurred by World War II? Or what the total bill WAS for WW2?

Just curious.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

1. According to this, we still haven't paid it off

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Debt

The United States has had public debt since its inception. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War and under the Articles of Confederation led to the first yearly reported value of $75,463,476.52 on January 1, 1791. Over the following 45 years, the debt grew, briefly contracted to zero on January 8, 1835 under President Andrew Jackson but then quickly grew into the millions again.<39><40>

The first dramatic growth spurt of the debt occurred because of the Civil War. The debt was just $65 million in 1860, but passed $1 billion in 1863 and had reached $2.7 billion following the war. The debt slowly fluctuated for the rest of the century, finally growing steadily in the 1910s and early 1920s to roughly $22 billion as the country paid for involvement in World War I.<41>

The buildup and involvement in World War II brought the debt up another order of magnitude from $51 billion in 1940 to $260 billion following the war. After this period, the debt's growth closely matched the rate of inflation until the 1980s, when it again began to skyrocket. Between 1980 and 1990, the debt more than tripled. By the end of 2005, the gross debt reached $7.9 trillion, about 8.7 times its 1980 level.<[br />

[Tyler Durden]

4. Yep. In order to have a time frame for paying off debt....

You actually have to pay it off.

We live in a Credit Card economy, making the minimum payment to the Elite Class which holds the debt paper.

[HereSince1628]

2. I know the Fed tax on your phone bill was put there to pay for the Spanish American War

That glorious little war just never seems to get paid off.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Here's one estimate.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761563737_15/world_war_ii.html

The United States spent the most money on the war, an estimated $341 billion, including $50 billion for lend-lease supplies, of which $31 billion went to Britain, $11 billion to the Soviet Union, $5 billion to China, and $3 billion to 35 other countries. Germany was next, with $272 billion; followed by the Soviet Union, $192 billion; and then Britain, $120 billion; Italy, $94 billion; and Japan, $56 billion. Except for the United States, however, and some of the less militarily active Allies, the money spent does not come close to being the war’s true cost. The Soviet government has calculated that the USSR lost 30 percent of its national wealth, while Nazi exactions and looting were of incalculable amounts in the occupied countries. The full cost to Japan has been estimated at $562 billion. In Germany, bombing and shelling had produced 4 billion cu m (5 billion cu yd) of rubble.

[HereSince1628]

5. here is a site that estimates the cost of our favorite wars...

http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/historical_war_costs/

[endarkenment]

6. It ain't paid off it is just rolled over.

We have been accumulating new debt almost every year since the 30s.

[texanshatingbush]

7. Yikes! The mind reels.........

Thanks for the link, and thanks to all of you for the info!

Now I am REALLY
--TexansHatingBush (as well as TexansHatingNeocons, etc.)