Monday, January 17, 2011

National debt: The ugly facts

National debt: The ugly facts(click)  How interesting that our government hasn't figured out yet that the economic boom of post World War II resulted from encouraging taxpayers to save their money, invest in the United States (bonds), and technological advancements. The trend of spend, spend, spend and credit, credit, credit has overtaken public rationalism since the 70's.  What happened? Was is that we, as the last of the baby boomers, couldn't handle cutting back because of the impacts of a fuel crisis and rising food costs? Or did the movements of music, love, and drugs from the 60's create a polar opposite of materialism and self-centerness. Unfortunately, the latter seems to have trickled into our government, and collecting tax dollars for member item money and grants to study everything imaginable (or beyond imaginable) is not only the norm but expected. It's expensive dinners, suits, and vacations at the highest level.

It's not "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" anymore, it's how much money can you spend to get elected so you can spend more money to stay elected. Although, I must admit that a very few elected officials refused ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds. I do understand that money needs to be spent on infrastructure which was one of the winning projects in the post-war recovery, but conducting studies on college student drinking habits or bows and arrows is decadent. I loved a comment posted by Assemblyman Crouch; "I have always put the interests of schools, municipalities, libraries and fire departments first when issuing member-item money,” said Crouch. “As an elected official, it is my obligation to do what is in the best interest of the district I represent, and I have always used member-item money for the benefit of the community as a whole whether it be rescue equipment or money set aside for libraries to renovate or expand." He went on to say if reforms weren't made to treat all constituents fairly and for a more transparent system, then it should be done away with.

The CNN article and video is an alarming no brainer (misnomer?) Alarming: 60% to 100% economic debt.  No brainer: private business, investment in local Mom and Pops, basic pride in ownership not Victorian extravagance.  Buy local, produce local, stay local. This being said I'm sure by now that everyone is aware SpectraWatt had major layoffs because "the Chinese are doing it cheaper".

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