You owe $145,000. And the bill is rising every day.

That's how much it would cost every American man, woman and child to pay the tab for the long-term promises the U.S. government has made to creditors, retirees, veterans and the poor.

And it's not even taking into account credit card bills, mortgages — all the debt we've racked up personally. Savings? The average American puts away barely $1 of every $100 earned.

Our profligate ways at home are mirrored in Washington and in the global marketplace, where as a society we spend $1.9 billion more a day on imported clothes and cars and gadgets than the entire rest of the world spends on its goods and services.

A new Associated Press/Ipsos poll finds that barely a third of Americans would cut spending to reduce the federal deficit and even fewer would raise taxes.

A chorus of economists, government officials and elected leaders — both conservative and liberal — are warning that nonstop borrowing could bring fiscal disaster — one that could unleash plummeting home values, rocketing interest rates, lost jobs and threats to government services ranging from healthcare to law enforcement.

David Walker, who audits the federal government's books as the U.S. comptroller general, put it starkly in an AP interview:

"I believe the country faces a critical crossroad, and that the decisions that are made — or not made — within the next 10 years or so will have a profound effect on the future of our country, our children and our grandchildren. The problem gets bigger every day, and the tidal wave gets closer every day."

Borrowing isn't all bad. Easy access to money has been a critical tool in building America's businesses, from mom-and-pops to multinationals. Places like Las Vegas are sprawling with new homes that will be purchased with borrowed money. But something has changed.

An epidemic of American indebtedness runs from home to government to global marketplace.

To examine it, let's start at home.

Americans' savings rate rose and fell in the post-World War II era, up to 11 percent, down to 7 percent. But in the last few years, savings have plummeted: to just 1.8 percent past year, nearly to zero in the past few months.

The lack of savings is mirrored by a rise in debt. In 2000, household debt broke 18 percent of disposable income for the first time in 20 years, meaning debt eats almost $1 into every $5 American families have to spend after they get past the bills that keep them fed and housed.

In lieu of savings, Americans have been taking comfort in the soaring value of their homes. But there's a vigorous debate over whether the housing boom is becoming a bubble that will burst.

"I see people younger than me with comparable jobs that drive new vehicles and have a boat and mortgage and things," says Jo Canelon, a 46-year-old social worker in Statenville, Ga. "And I just wonder about their debt."

Canelon sees echoes in the rise of obesity: a pervasive I-want-it-now attitude no matter what the consequences.

An Associated Press/Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults taken July 5-7 found that a sweeping majority — 70 percent — worried about the size of the federal deficit either "some" or "a lot."

But only about a third, 35 percent, were willing to cut government spending and deal with a drop in services to balance the budget. Even fewer — 18 percent — were willing to raise taxes to keep current services. Just 1 percent wanted to both raise taxes and cut spending. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

A few years ago, government finances were the strongest they had been in a generation. But it didn't last. The budget surplus of $236 billion in 2000 turned into a deficit of $412 billion last year.

Blame the bust of the dot-com boom, the ensuing recession, President Bush's federal tax cuts, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Still, the federal deficit isn't as big, in proportion to the size of the economy, as it was at times under President Reagan. Some note that things are getting better: The latest reports project a deficit of $331 billion for 2005, nearly $100 billion less than expected. Outstanding debt — the amount of securities and bonds that must be repaid — is below what it was in the early 1990s.

But bigger worries lie ahead.

The nation's three biggest entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — make promises for retirement and health care that carry a huge price tag that balloons as the population grows and ages.

Add it up: current debt and deficit, promises for those big programs, pensions, veterans health care. The total comes to $43 trillion, says Walker, the nation's comptroller general, who runs the Government Accountability Office. That's where the $145,000 bill for every American comes from.

The dangers are clear to Felicia Brown in Saginaw, Mich. It's the leaders who ignore them, says the cashier and mother of three: "We're led off on this belief that we should buy, buy, buy. ... We're not saving anything."

Some people, however — including economists — think the picture isn't so gloomy.

Ben Bernanke, who recently left the Federal Reserve Board to serve as Bush's top economic adviser, has argued that the problem is not with the United States. The trouble lies overseas, where people want to save rather than invest or spend their money. While the federal budget needs to be balanced, the key is to encourage other countries to create more economic activity, he says.