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?

Our Insolvent Democracy

I remember President Eisenhower's terms in office well. I had been a fan of Truman and had serious doubts about how well an Army "General" would operate in the world of politics, that he might be a lamb among wolves. Well, I wrongly discounted the lessons he had learned in trying to keep Montgomery and Patton from killing each other and focusing on the Germans and Italians...but that is a different story.

what impressed me most (and continues to this day) was Eisenhower's farewell address just as he was leaving office. The Speech on January 17, 1951, was televised...sixty (60) years ago. Most remember his caution about the Military-Industrial Complex (which warning was proven to be true, even though subsequently misused by the Progressive-Liberal-Socialist-Democrat movements of the time). But there was a paragraph much more important...and of particular importance today:

"Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.” [underlines added:DT]

Too bad we can't bring him back, bust all the politicians to private and put them at the command and training of the General...we certainly would be better off.


We (the American people) have been "blaming someone else for more than 60 years now. We allow politicians to promise free lunches when we have always known they don't exist. We have allowed politicians to get away with Ponzi schemes before Ponzi ever existed...and re-electing them for their prowess.

Every tax ever put into effect has been touted as "temporary". Yeah...right. Every infrastructure has been funded "only until it is paid for, and then reduced and used only to pay for maintenance." Right...sure.

Then those funds are taken by the politicians to cover their regular government operating costs so that they don't have to raise the taxes to pay for the "free" lunch that you were promised. And decades later, as our bridges and highways and public buildings are crumbling, the current crop of crooks wring their hands looking for someone other than the taxpayer to pay...what a load of Bovine Excretion.

How about a politician who simply says..".You and your parents got the lunch...here is the bill. Suck it up and understand that you voted in the people who screwed things up...you are responsible...you are going to pay...and the bill is due right now." That is what we deserve.