Posted on 09/04/2012 3:30:10 PM PDT by billflax
Wow! We’ll soon cross Sixteen Trillion Dollars in Federal Debt! S-i-x-t-e-e-n T-r-i-l-l-i-o-n D-o-l-l-a-r-s. That’s a lot of vote buying even for Washington. Is this ruin? Have we indentured our children into servitude? Solomon warned borrowers will be slaves to their lenders. Add $120 plus trillion in unfunded forthcoming liabilities and, well, we’re doomed.
Yet, as significant as this looks, and sixteen trillion of anything cannot be insignificant, the economic repercussions are the least of America’s worries. We still finance this cheaply. Rates on Treasuries remain low. Moreover, America endures as the world’s preeminent economic engine.
Obviously, debt weighs heavily on markets, especially the spending which spurred annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion. Government intervention smothers more gainful private pursuits. As Washington nonchalantly politicizes capital the economy suffers. Private actors would invest far better than politicians bribing the electorate.
As resources filter through the state’s machinations, liberty and prosperity are sacrificed to political ends. Massive debt is economically bad, really bad, and perhaps even hopeless; but much, much worse is what this reveals about America’s moral, cultural and political decay.
Our present debt debacle frequents comparison to World War II. We borrowed then to save Western Civilization. That war would end in triumph. Today, we spend subsidizing civilization’s demise with no victory evident and no end apparent. These debts and the moral morass they sponsor will worsen. Acceleration is baked in as baby boomers only begin to retire and taxpayer supported illegitimacy spawns multi-generational dependency.
Washington’s principal endeavor is rewarding recipients to shun work. Entitlements and relief exceed seventy percent of expenditures; social services then cushion the fallout. Increasingly generous handouts and steeply progressive taxes make entitlement reform treacherous. Politicians spout lip service to frugality, but are so beholden to continuing this largesse the Senate cannot even pass a budget.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
The numbers are so staggeringly large it’s beyond comprehension. And it was all stolen. Look around at the decay. Filthy crime ridden cities, crappy roads, all overseen by an army of very well compensated employees of the King. America has been fleeced.
And then there’s the $16T that the Fed has doled out, mostly to multi-nationals and overseas banks between 2007 and 2010, with no hope of ever getting it back.
When I file my tax return next year I'm gonna send them monopoly money.
See how they like that sh!t
ran 15,999,755,000,000 at 4pm
now 15,999,842,000,ooo at 6pm
difference of 87,000,000 for 2 hours
the clock usually goes about 4 billion a day
or 333,333,333 every 2 hours
so the clock is definitely running slower.....
It’s not $16 trillion, it’s THIRTY TWO TRILLION!!!
You have to include the $16 trillion the Federal Reserve gave away all on their own authority.
Great piece. You even mentioned fatherlessness.
It would be interesting to see work by an author courageous enough to write more about the causes of fatherlessness (back to the 1800s) or the many laws passed more recently by both political parties to enforce fatherlessness.
It would also be good to see an article addressing manufacturing and globalism. Anyway, I’m sure that we, as a nation, be in a situation conducive to being more honest before long, and I (a mean, old man) welcome the remainder of the process.
Proper name for it now is debasement of currency.
You might like this recent one:
Or these on feminism:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billflax/2011/07/21/feminism-cant-divorce-its-debt-to-capitalism/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billflax/2012/04/19/feminists-are-waging-war-on-family-finances/
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