Rich yet Poor?

Our country is in debt. There is no secret about it. And yet we are one of the richest economies in the world. In the article, Putting America's ridiculously large $18T economy into perspective by comparing US state GDPs to entire countries, Mark Perry puts into perspective the amount of money each state in the US puts out in comparison to other countries. California alone can beat out the entire country of France. California has a workforce of around 19 million, whereas France as a little more than 25 million workers. California could literally be able to be its own country with the amount of money we make, despite the fact it has less workers. And smaller states like New York is right up there with South Korea. Florida was ranked with Indonesia. New York, California, and Texas, if they were separate countries, would have ranked in the top eleven in the worlds largest economies. US put out $18 trillion in 2015 and yet somehow no matter how much we make we can never seem to crawl of our debt hole.

 Reading through the article I had the most common question apparently, "where is all of our money going?". I'm aware a large chunk goes to the military fund, and as a military brat I'm a little biased and believe its a good way to spend the money. I also understand there are things throughout the country that the money needs to go to but, why oh why are we this far in debt. But reading through the comments on the article and getting more and different perspectives that question seems to drift away. One comment sparked in my mind. Not the question of where its all going, but why is our country so expensive to live in and afford if we have no problem making money. Health care, housing, college why is it so hard to pay for when in reality we are flushed with cash. But at the same we have nothing. We can afford them obviously, we do we survive. But they are so high its becoming increasingly harder to.

Reading through others insights into the problem and I keep seeing "regulations" popping up and how if  more of them were repealed it would making living here so much less of a money ordeal. I'm not very familiar with regulations and taxes and all the nonsense. I'm only 17 and I'd like to hold to not adulting in that way for just a second longer. But from what I've heard taxes seems to be only rising. I, myself, don't have any real plans besides the simple, " we need to save the money, spend it wisely, and pay off our debts, don't spend more than we make." But the fact is we make plenty, our states make more than whole countries. But whatever the solution, it needs to begin to be resolved to avoid a further increase in taxes and increase in our seemingly never ending debt. We have one of the richest economies yet we also one of the poorest. First place and last? Slightly embarrassing...