Michael Swickard
It has been quite a year. America started 2011 in severe financial crisis with far too much governmental spending. We end the year without any real effort by our government to deal with the crisis. Most politicians refuse to even admit there is a crisis.
Europeans are several years ahead in their financial crisis. They are even more intentionally ignorant of the financial calamity. We could watch them and learn from their mistakes, but we do not.
Americans are awash in data. In seconds we can have huge amounts of information. Yet America is a nation of people totally unaware of the coming financial catastrophe.
America is operating the government for the fourth year in a row on a huge amount of money it does not have. For every dollar our government spends, about forty cents is outside this country’s revenue stream. The government borrows some of this shortfall and “quantitatively conjures” the rest. That means our government just acts like it has money even though it does not. The government says it has money without explaining where and how that money came into being. It is extreme fraud. If a private citizen did so he or she would serve time.
America spent over 200 years getting $8 trillion in debt. That amount doubled in less than four years. Additionally, more than half of all wage earners pay no federal tax, which means the other half pays it all. But that is not enough for people who ride on the backs of others. There is the notion America is not a “fair” society because some people have more than others. Politicians work the redistributing wealth angle because that is where the votes are.
Politicians promise to make every day a holiday for those who vote profligate spenders into office. And voters have done so. Last week it was considered a victory for Democrats that the money intended for Social Security was lessened for 60 days. The Social Security fund has nothing saved in it. The current receipts pay for current expenditures, but do not cover all of the entitled citizens who were to be paid this year. So the nation borrows more money to pay for this political victory.
Someone in the future will pay
The core issue in this political crisis is the government holding interest rates to almost zero to be able to borrow at very low rates. Not that it matters, since much of what America spends now is conjured by politicians out of thin air. It matters because the financial health of Americans is reduced by the interest rate being effectively zero. Americans are not building wealth with their savings.
Two issues: what is really happening financially in our country, and secondly, that the politicians and the media are not being truthful. There will be a time in the future when these extremely bad actions will have to be redeemed by the next generation’s taxpayers. They will pay for political influence entirely consumed by this generation. At best they will be sullen, at worse, mutinous.
If I am still alive when the financial collapse comes some citizens may ask how I let this happen. The best I can do is show them all of the columns I have written over the years in which I protested these irresponsible actions. That might be a bright side.
But after you are through looking at the bright side of a disaster, you are still left with the disaster. Several generations of Americans will live lesser lives because the people of 2011 were not responsible.
The TEA party was inspired by this realization that the financial actions of our government were not sustainable. But then most of those elected in the 2010 sweep into Congress got weak knees and have not fought with vigor for the future of our country.
At the least, I hope the next generation removes the names of this generation’s politicians put on buildings as an honor. We will not otherwise punish this generation of leaders. They will be gone. This generation does not have the will to do the right sustainable actions. Someone in the future will pay for this generation’s fraudulent behavior. It is not if, just when. Perhaps 2012.
Swickard is co-host of the radio talk show News New Mexico, which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. His e-mail address is michael@swickard.com.