Sacrifice and Greed

I read comments from Politicians about the "need for common sacrifice" to get through our economic challenge.  There would be no problem with a request for common sacrifice if it were 1) equally shared by all, and 2) followed an elimination of the causes that led to the need for sacrifice. However, that is not true here. It is the government itself that has caused our problems, and it has not corrected it's policies or actions. Our "representatives" (boy, is that a joke. Certainly it is a one word oxymoron) are still serving their own, instead of the country's, well-being. And the sacrifice is defined by this President as continuing to spend money we DO NOT HAVE.

Everything we do as a country today is done on BORROWED funds. Is Libya important enough to us that we should borrow the money from China to do what we are doing? Because that is exactly what we are doing. Is the Department of Education doing enough for you, your country and your children that you are breaking your kids' piggybanks to get the money to fund them? Because, figuratively and perhaps realistically, that is what you are doing when you allow our government to continue to spend more and more money on departments and programs that have not accomplished demonstrable success for years and always whine that they just need MORE money...yet never produce results.

Greed? The Government, Politicians, and public sector unions set the standard. If they could hold themselves to the same level of behavior as the much-denigrated "rich" there would be an improvement.

As I was growing up, my father told me one day that when deciding on whether to try to do something, or invest in something, most people ask the wrong question: they ask "what can I make?" He told me that the question is fine, but it has to be prefaced with two other questions first: 1) "What can I lose?", and 2) "Can I afford to lose it?" Only, said he, if you can define the answer to the first question and say "yes" to the second, should you even bother to ask the last question.

Why does it appear that these simple rules are never followed by our Politicians and our government...on ANYTHING? And why do we not demand that they do so? Do we all have a Death Wish? I am starting to think so. After all, we do not have any money. We borrow it all. We do not have the money to pay all that we owe today if our creditors were to ask for their money.

Is Libya important enough to us that we borrow the money for the no-fly zone from China? Really? Because that is what we are doing. How about the same question with regard to our membership in the U.N.? Foreign Aid? Payments to the Afghan and Pakistani governments? Troops in Europe? The President's trip to South America (really, hasn't he ever heard of tele-conferencing?)?

It would be questionable enough if we actually HAD the money...but we DON'T.

I can't do this sort of thing as an individual or as a business without having concrete answers to these questions FIRST. Why does the government get a free ride?