Stop Pulling the Wagon

“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US”

POGO

SOMETIMES it is fun to revisit something I wrote a number of years ago.  The following piece is from January 2011, some two years into the first Obama Administration when we were “only” 14 Trillion Dollars in debt as a nation.

Point of reference, from 1776 to 2009 we, as a country, went from no debt to 10 Trillion dollars in debt.  We went from approximately 10 Trillion Dollars in debt when Mr. Obama took office to 20 Trillion Dollars in debt when he left office 8 years later in 2017. 

Now, less than six years after that we are 30 – racing to 31 Trillion Dollars in debt and sort of paying the Visa with the Mastercard.  I think I see a pattern developing here. 

There is no way to even pay the interest on this debt without a lot of smoke and mirrors, like inflation.

Truly, the enemy is us and we simply lack the discipline to fix this.  Sad.

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BARBARIANS AT THE GATE

I have always had a special place in my heart for the 1971 Pogo Cartoon strip by Walt Kelly (1913-1973) in which our little hero returns from a kind of scouting mission to announce what he discovered about possible invaders. (I think I have that right –  its been a while).   Although Pogo (and Walt Kelly’s ) web site makes a point of not wanting Pogos famous observation to promote any one group or cause, I am sure he would have no problem with the observation that the enemy we most encounter is, as Pogo so astutely observes, ourselves.  I would very much  put myself at, or near, the top of any list I might compose.

I believe that we, as a nation are at a tipping point, or crossroads if  you prefer.  One of our nations  founders wrote (and I paraphrase)  that our democracy would last until the people discovered that they could vote themselves money from the public treasury.  A sort of  “Day of Reckoning”.

Maybe the question we should be asking ourselves it whether we as individuals, and as a nation, can again return to our nations roots and  practice self discipline, financial discipline and the willingness to postpone gratification of desires until we can pay for them.  Or, do we continue to demand instant everything and let our credit cards  and  Uncle Sugar (the government)  pay for it with borrowed money.

I am old enough that I can remember when Lyndon Johnson was President and promised us that we could afford both “Guns and Butter”.  In other words we could afford to fight and pay for the Vietnam War and at the same time launch a massive “War on Poverty” transferring our nations wealth to those in need.  I was thrilled at the time thinking that poverty would be eradicated,  there would be no more poor people and we would all live in a land of plenty.  President Johnson was wrong and I was wrong.  What we did was to acquire several Trillion (that’s Trillion with a T)  Dollars in debt while seriously damaging the family structure for millions of people. All with the best of intentions.  In the process we also created a whole sub-culture who became entitlement “junkies”.

As a nation we are now 14 Trillion Dollars in debt and that total is growing at the rate of more than a Trillion Dollars a year.  We are rapidly reaching the point where just paying the interest on the debt will consume an ever increasing portion of the nations annual tax revenue.  Do we have the remaining discipline as a people to make the hard choices and practice self denial  to halt and reverse this process?  I am beginning to doubt this.

On its present course this government wagon is one  I do not want to help pull.   I think I will work on a way to not participate!

January 29, 2011

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Something to think about.

Bob Bandy – June 2022