That is the total of the average annual accrued liabilities of just the two largest entitlement programs, plus the annual cash deficit.

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The current unfunded liabilities are more than five times the personal debt of the average household, including mortgages, loans and credit cards.

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But more than that, Hopkins's father was the author of A Handbook of Average and A Manual of Marine Insurance, both standard reference books for negotiating, averaging, and adjusting the liabilities to insurance underwriters of cargo losses and shipwrecks, so Hopkins grew up in a world wet with marine accidents and was especially attentive to them.

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