Are you surprised by the amount of people on here who do not know the diff btwn the US Deficit & US Debt?

Question

I understand that yahoo answers may not be the place to find the most intelligent views on economics; however, this is something that every high schooler at least should have a full understanding of...but question after question I see people confusing the two.

I am a little surprised (and perturbed!). Anyone else?

Answer 1

I don't know the difference. I'm going to look it up now. This was never stressed in school...should it have been?

Maybe the reason many people get confused is because Deficit and Debt have similar, but different meanings.

Debt- What we owe.

Deficit- How much we are short on what we owe.

I sure hope I got that right?

Answer 2

It doesn't surprise me at all. The average education level of adults in the United States is 8th grade.