The Burgeoning National Debt

If being in debt is healthy, then there is cause for celebration, each man, woman and child carries an obligation of $28,000 on behalf of the Federal Government. State, municipal and personal debt is extra.

Daylan Darby has the numbers - not adjusted for inflation, the per capita debt has risen a thousand-fold since 1901.

According to this link,
in 1901 the nominal GDP per head was $288, so the per capita debt was 10% of the average annual income. In 2004, the per capita nominal GDP was $40,000, and so the debt per person is now 70% of the average annual income. (I know, I'm mixing up GDP and GNP. But the numbers are stark, and there is no need to get more precise than this.)