New figures show that the net worth of the United States only equates to around 400 billion barrels of oil – or about how much there is in the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia and Iran combined.
Moneycentral.msn.com has revealed that never has the US been worth less, relative to oil.
Oil has outstripped the value created by a full generation of working Americans after soaring to its current price of over $US140 a barrel.
The collective worth of all US households and non-profit organisation stands at $US56 trillion – a figure arrived at by adding up the values of all houses, cars, durable items, bank deposits, stocks, bonds and mutual funds. It then subtracts mortgages, consumer credit and other debt.
With $US56 trillion only just covering all the oil reserves in Saudi Arabia (approximately 264 billion barrels) and Iran (139 billion barrels) the USA has never been worse off in the comparison.
In 1970 the nation was worth about 1.1 trillion barrels; in 1980 - 438.6 billion; 1990 – 1.1 trillion and 2007 – 481 billion.
