Where Are We? Where Should We Be?

Ya know, let's face it there's a lot of talk in Washington about how to draw down our debt. And let's also face the fact that we've lived pretty high off the hog for a whole lot of years here in America. During that time we've allowed a lot of things go to pot around here. We've allowed our infrastructure to deteriorate, we've allowed our educational systems to slip, we've watched while our manufacturing base sailed away, and our air and water become polluted. We've even allowed our financial systems to wander off into a no man's land. And all this time we've lived quite comfortably, even to the extent that we've seen our children and for some, our grandchildren all do better than us. All a blessing come true. Well, okay. Now it's time to pay for the mistakes we made. And make no mistake. They're our mistakes. Oh, we can blame elected officials. But remember, they were just giving us what we asked for. So okay, now we have to decide who will pay and how. Do we discontinue the entitlements we've been handing out for so many years. Entitlements that allow the poor to live a bit of the life the rest of us have enjoyed? Do we ask those who have prospered the most to pay up? Do we find some middle ground? Let's look at how the wealthy became wealthy before we ask them to pay and how the poor became poor before we ask them to pay. This is the only fair way to begin to decide. Not everybody who is rich was born rich and even those who were, can trace back to someone in the family who built that fortune. I don't think that anyone can say that they came by their wealth honestly who didn't also benefit from government help. Either by favorable legislation, or as a supplier to the government and the military industrial complex, or as a result of financial assistance in research or at the very least, protection from unfair competition and outright theft. Without a friendly government, nobody but military strongmen, can become wealthy or even hope for anything beyond serfdom. Nor can rich folks reach that place without employees and customers who make it possible. It's also true that favorable legislation has allowed these people to keep a large portion of the wealth they have accumulated. Now to the poor. How does one become poor. Certainly not by design. I've never met nor have I heard of anyone who, as a young adult, has said "I hope to grow up to be poor". For many folks, it just happens. A bad choice in investments, a poor choice in business, bad health, poor education, starting life in a difficult environment. The list is every bit as lengthy as that of successful people, and then some. One man is lucky enough to make it to the top, another slides to the bottom. If we choose to neglect the poor, we are a third world country. That leaves the middle class and the rich to pay the tab. With a debt of over $14 trillion dollars, don't expect the middle class to fund recovery alone. But we must cut out all of the waste. This country has spent sixty plus years building in waste. Is some of that waste spent on the poor, unwisely? Yes. Is some of that waste spent on the middle class, unwisely? Sure. Is much of that waste spent on the wealthy, unwisely? You bet. There isn't a man or woman who would happily give up all the benefits government provides if they understood what those benefits actually are. But most folks would, I believe, give up some of the more egregious ones, if they could be sure that everyone else was also facing the same losses and in relation to how much they're being benefited and how much they really need. There are a few things we need to look at as well. Until such time as we repair and replace our infrastructure and improve our educational systems and bring back our manufacturing base, we'll never quite be able to catch up.These things won't come free. Were going to have to pay for them and we're going to need innovative people to guide us to that place. If we ever make it, I hope we have the good sense not to allow things to fall apart again. We probably need to take a hard look at our government first. It simply doesn't work. If it did, we wouldn't need to do all of the above.