On October 3, 2022, the U.S. Treasury's official figure for the debt of the federal government was $31.1 trillion. This amounts to an average of $239,542 for every household in the United States. Regardless of how much taxes people pay, almost everyone suffers the harmful effects of government debt. This is because it is rarely paid off but manifests in the form of inflation, lower wages, weak economic growth, and combinations of such results. Since government debt hurts people through economic mechanisms that are not obvious to the general public, voters seldom hold politicians accountable for running up debt. Hence, the harmful effects continue.