William Greenwood, right, and his son, David, have been posting the national debt on their Pawtucket home for 11 years now.

The Providence Journal Bob Thayer

PAWTUCKET — There are many days when William Greenwood and his son, David, must feel like prophets crying in the wilderness.

Every week for the past 11 years, the two have posted the numbers of the national debt on a long, wooden board nailed to their house at 315 Sayles Ave., hoping to stir people to action.

Most passersby ignore the figures.

On Sept. 30, amid the presidential campaign, bank foreclosures and talks of a bail-out, the national debt passed the $10-trillion mark.

David, 41, who takes the national debt number from the Concord Coalition National Debt Clock on the Internet, saw the $10-trillion landmark and promptly told his father.

Ever the optimist, William, 68, who worked as a certified nursing assistant at Memorial Hospital for 37 years, said he thought the staggering number might get some people riled enough to call their legislators.

“We were trying to get their attention,” the elder Greenwood said. “We’re trying to wake up the people but we are having a difficult time doing it, which is sad.”

The Greenwoods didn’t post the $10-trillion figure the day it hit because such a long number required adding wood to the existing sign and redrawing it.

When the vinyl numbers went up the day after, people had the same reaction: indifference. William said only an occasional student from Shea High School has stopped to ask about the figures. Drivers toot their horns now and then, he said.

This week the national debt numbers at the Greenwood house read $10,471,035,056,193. It’s a scary proposition, said the elder Greenwood, given that when he and David started posting the numbers, it stood at $5.47 trillion. Debt is how much money the government owes. The deficit is how much government spending exceeds the revenues it takes in each year.

“If this debt keeps spiraling the way it is, I feel our country is heading into something worse. We are headed for a depression that will make the Great Depression look like a cakewalk,” William said.

William, who is the president of the Rhode Island Reform Party, said he wants the presidential candidates to start giving direct answers about what they are going to do about the national debt.

He said that the country cannot continue to bail out the banks. “We will start seeing much higher interest rates. What happens to that person just starting out trying to buy a house? They go to the bank, the interest rates are going to be higher. They are going to struggle with it,” William said.

He pointed to Ama’s Variety store, a small family-owned business around the corner and asked how the owner could cope as the cost of merchandise increases. “How long can the small business keep going? Their vendor is going to charge higher for items. Everything is going to increase,” he said.

William said a couple of years back he and his wife made a big cut in their spending to get themselves out of credit-card debt. They cut back on going to restaurants and the movies and making certain purchases for the house. “Everything we thought about buying we asked, ‘Do we really need it?’ ” They paid their credit-card bill plus the interest on it each month. He said it took about four years to bring the debt down.

Peter Howitt, professor of economics at Brown University, said the national debt is what the federal government has borrowed and hasn’t paid back because it is spending more than it raises in tax revenues.

“It’s somewhat analogous to a person having a debt outstanding that is more than half their annual income. What it represents is a future liability for the taxpayer. The debt has been incurred with interest. That interest has to be paid by somebody and that somebody is us the taxpayers.”

If we had to pay off the national debt right away, every man, woman and child in the United States would have to pay more than $30,000, Howitt estimated. “If we all had to pay it off right away, not many people would be left with anything in their college fund for the kids. One hundred and twenty thousand for a family of four is a pretty big debt in addition to the mortgages and car loans people have.”

tpina@projo.com