Do you have the same feeling I have
Published 1:47 pm Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sometimes, after hearing a good dose of today’s main stream media news, I get that sick feeling that I am sitting on top of a huge ponzi scheme.
I hear about the trillions of dollars in U.S. debt, and it just keeps growing; no end in sight.
Even Obama’s chief economic adviser, Paul Volker, said the government’s course right now is not sustainable. He proposed a VAT tax, what is called a value added tax. Remember, I told you about that. I got it from Charles Krauthammer, who wrote a very perceptive column on it. Volker is the one who broke the back of rampant inflation in the late 70s and early 80s.
I knew someone would float it. It won’t be proposed fully before the election because Washington politicians know it would hurt Democratic prospects.
But if Democrats maintain their control after the November elections, they will go for it with a vengeance. The reason is that they have got to come up with some more taxes somewhere to pay for everything.
They have maxed out their credit cards and are looking to obtain another one.
The simple fact is that we will pay up at some point. The chickens will come home to roost and they will bring along another brood to boot. We might make it three years, five, maybe even 10, but at some point everything will be reset, that is the debt, and then all of us, each one will feel the pinchers as those in control squeeze the last penny out of us to pay off the looming sunami of debt. Some of us already are.
I personally will probably be out of here when this hits, but my children and grand-children will be here. That is why we must do something right now, in November. We must send a message to our “fearless leader” and Congress that we want fiscal responsibility.
Look, I agree with Obama that we should help the poor and those who can’t afford insurance, but, My God!, we have to do it in a responsible manner that will be sustainable and not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, which is the free enterprise system.
I am amazed at those who all the time castigate corporations, when everything we consume comes from a corporation, from our cars, gas, food, clothing. It is corporations that produce all these items we use to live our lives. And what are corporations but people who come together to produce goods for their fellow man.
I try with my meager income to help people, first my immediate family, and if I have a little left over, I want to help someone that God leads me to, a stranger perhaps. But I first must take care of myself, help my loved ones if I can and where I can, and then consider someone else, a stranger perhaps. In other words you must keep your own finances in order or you can’t even help your own self.
But what are our leaders and federal government doing but shoveling it out the door with no forethought of how they are going to sustain this.
I used to be a trucker, driving all over this country and Canada, and I know how the homeless live. I have seen them rummage through garbage cans for food and beg for a handout, almost daily as I drove coast to coast. Some people live like animals.
They panhandle and at first I would give them cash if they asked for help. But a guy in Little Rock, Ark., taught me a lesson that I will always use and never forget. He bummed $10 off me while I was fueling my truck. There was a liquor store across the street.
He turned and walked away and walked straight across to the liquor store, bought a bottle of whiskey with my $10 and never once did he look at me. He actually did not give a darn what I thought. All he wanted was my $10, and like an undisciplined fool, I gave it to him. I had pity for him. Always remember Christ advised us to help the poor but he also said don’t throw your pearls before swine.
Anyway, I swore then I would never give another bum a dime. But I changed my position, knowing that “the poor you always have with you.” So if some freeloader asked me for money because he was hungry (that’s their main story), I would tell him yes, you go in there to the restaurant and I will be in there in a minute and buy you a meal. Only a few would show up. Most just wanted the money for drugs or liquor.
What I am saying is there is a limit to what you can do for your fellowman, and there is a limit to what government can do for us. The Bible tells us that debt is bondage and culminates in a loss of freedom.
Yes, let’s help our fellowman, individually and through the government, but what in the heck is wrong with doing it responsibly.