It occurs to me that everywhere we look, things look better than when we were raised. Our houses are bigger, our cars are newer, our roads are better, and our buildings are grander. It appears we are a wealthy nation.
But are we really? When I was young, there was no talk about trillion dollar deficits nor were there many credit cards in circulation. My family didn’t have one nor did I have one until I was over 25 years old.
What we have today is a federal government that spends like there is no tomorrow. The sequester and the House feuding with the Senate is the only reason federal spending has been controlled somewhat. Our President spends and believes we need to raise taxes to spend some more. Congress did the same thing, and it didn’t seem to matter which party was in control. In the past the Democrats spent and wanted to raise taxes to keep on spending, while the Republicans spent and didn’t want to raise taxes. It didn’t mean that the Republicans stopped spending, though.
Our current Congress may be different, but only time will tell. And don’t get me started about our state agencies.
I belong to the Florida Forestry Association, and last summer I learned that our federal government was destroying their surplus military equipment instead of passing it on to local and state governments. I used to work for the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, and we used to rely on those surplus machines to make ends meet. Our agency didn’t have a lot of money to spend, and in Florida our constitution requires a balanced budget. No money, no spending. So the GFC needed that surplus equipment.
I also know that local fire stations do the same, as does the state forest service. I thought to myself, what in the world are the feds doing. Is there a safety issue with the equipment?
No, it wasn’t a safety issue. Instead, it was our federal government protecting our air. The administration destroyed this valuable surplus equipment because it did not meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s air emissions standards.
Good Grief! How wasteful!
It appears our government thinks we are wealthy, too!
But in case you are sitting back and thinking that we, the people would do it better, let’s take a look at ourselves. Out here in the real world, we have a spending problem, too. We spend for all kind of good reasons, just like our government; but in the end we spend more money than we make, thanks to credit cards, mortgages, home equity loans and much, much more. Our children have hocked their life’s ambitions to pay for schools that we could not afford. We live in houses with upside down mortgages. We drive cars that are worth less than what we owe. We all appear wealthy.
I wish I could say more, but there isn’t much left to say.
You are exactly right, it was financed by bonds, taxes and budget deficits. Fortunately, the states are constrained by balanced budgets but the Federal Government can just keep spending, seemingly without a care in the world.
Sometimes I look at all the public and private wealth we have in the United States and I think is this a modern version of Rome? The infrastructure we have is staggering but I fear that we will be staggered more by the maintenance of it all.
Most of our growth occurred after WWII, in fact, after the 1970’s when the bankers figured out how to make enormous profits from consumer credit. After watching “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, the average Joe and Joleyn were ready and really, really wanted that four bedroom, three bath with the palatial master suite. Most of us fell for it and BOOM, the market took off and the good times rolled until they didn’t. Everything, houses, cars, wardrobes, closets, kept getting bigger, more tempting and more expensive but “Never mind”, the Banks told us, “we’ll get you qualified.” We had a great run but in 2008, the house of credit cards collapsed and we’ve been in the doldrums ever since. Now, we’re stuck in society where we have very high expenses (mortgage, utilities, cable, car payment, health insurance, car insurance, food, property taxes, credit card payments).
By some estimates, the real unemployment number is somewhere around 11% of the workforce. With so many unemployed to select from, starting salaries have plummeted. Those who are fortunate enough to have jobs have been squeezed hard by salaries failing to keep up with the real, everyday costs of life. What I fear now is that we’ve created something we can’t sustain. Time will tell but in the meantime, all we can do is keep on, keeping on.
Well said; and sadly, all true.