This Could Be Us
At what point, or what is it going to take to get the uninformed (cons, libs, reps, dems, et al.) to see the gravity of our current trajectory as a nation. Our spending exceeds our revenue, which means we currently barrow money to function. It is difficult to visualize the amount of all three (our nation’s revenue, spending, and borrowing) without a visual aide.
The total debt our borrowing creates is so high that it’s difficult to visualize without the visual aide of skyscrapers.
The law of non-contradictions dictates that we cannot have our cake and eat it too. That means we cannot borrow money to spend it, and also have that money to pay back the debt. This also means there is a limit to how much our government can take from the economy (in the form of taxes) to optimize revenue and any more beyond that point reduces the revenue — we are likely beyond that point. People are hoping we haven’t reached that point and an increase in revenue — by 100% if we want to break even — will solve the issue. There are other options available beside everyone paying double in taxes across the board in return for nothing.
Assuming we want to pay down the debt, the options are as follows: spend less, print money, some combination of the first two which I will not discuss for brevity sake, or continue to do nothing.
If we go with option one, at some point our borrowing must stop and we must pay back our debt. That means our government will need to spend nearly half — if not more– of what it currently spends just to slowly (centuriesish) pay off the debt.
The alternative is to destroy our currency by printing money to pay off the debt. That means money would be worth practically zero, which will make everyone who doesn’t own objectively valued items (like a car, or gold, or a house, etc.) penniless, while the prices for services go through the roof. I’m talking people can’t even guarantee when their going to get their next meal. Any cash left in your hands would have more value as toilet paper or scrap metal than it would as currency — that’s why our government stopped minting silver dimes and quarters in 1974. Who knows what would happen to our government, but the last time this type of inflation occurred in Germany, they found themselves ruled by the Nazi. Who could blame them for wanting order from the mass chaos that ensued from a debauched currency?
The alternative to either of the first two choices, which are at least attempts to solve the problem, is to CONTINUE to do nothing. We will reach a point where we cannot physically meet all of the payments on our debt. When that happens our credit plummets like any other person who fails to make payment. That means the chances of someone lending us money at current interest rates drops to zero, if we can find a lender willing to lend us money at all. If we can’t barrow money, forget about it. We will be forced to cut our spending or print money (the first two options). If we continue to borrow at higher rates, this only delays the next time we fail to make payment… again. So if we haven’t lost the option to borrow before now, then the chances just went up — forcing us to options one or two. This process of borrowing and defaulting repeats until we proceed with options one or two or we have no more lenders left to borrow from and we are forced to options one or two.
Now if we have no intention to pay off the debt, we will still need to spend less since it’s safe to say no one will lend us money, or we need to print more money to keep up with spending. The first option will result in a similar outcome as option one above. The second option will result in a similar outcome as option two above. The only difference is that certain countries we owe money to may be required to go to war with us due to the impossible situation our permanent default puts them in (survival-wise). It won’t be too difficult to demonize us so that their populous wants our heads on a platter — their government will be all too happy to direct the angry attention of their masses away from themselves and use us as a scapegoat. I cannot guarantee we make it out of such a war since our permanent default will likely cripple both of our economies, and shear masses will mean everything in such a war.
So there you have it. Without the ability of raising revenue, our choices ultimately are: we pay off the debt by spending less or printing money, or we permanently default and still spend less or print money. Out of the four, three will likely produce an outcome that will lead to our demise, which leaves us with one option that gives us a chance for a future — spending less money in order to pay down the debt.
I’ve suggested as convincingly as I can, for a couple of years now, that we need to limit government to its proper role of securing rights — and that’s it! This limitation is cheap and affordable. If we stayed at that limitation since 1776, the chances of such a state as we currently find ourselves in reduces to near zero — securing rights just ain’t that expensive. This limitation also gives us a decent out of our current situation — it allows us to pay down the debt by spending less money.
If not limiting government to an affordable size, then what is it that you would suggest? And remember, you cannot have your cake and eat it too.
Before you respond I have something I want some of you to consider. If you’re set on raising revenue, what if raising revenue isn’t possible over the long-run? Wouldn’t you want to know that bit of information? If you are wrong, and revenue cannot be raised to sufficient levels for the reason I stated, then you are essentially choosing the do nothing option, which will eventually force your hand anyway.
Life Or Death Politics 