On a recent trip to our nation’s capital I went on a tour of the some of the major buildings where our federal government conducts its business including the Supreme Court, the Capitol Building, and the White House. At the end of the tour, our guide (an affable fellow named Ted) asked if we had any questions.
It turns out there was a precocious young man in the crowd named Timmy who looked to be around 12, and he had some rather interesting questions for Ted. The following is how their conversation went, to the best of my recollection.
Ted: Now are there any questions about anything we saw on today’s tour? Yes, young man?
Timmy: Yeah, how come we didn’t see the Magic Money Machine?
Ted: The what?
Timmy: The Magic Money Machine. I asked my Dad where the government gets the money for all the things it spends it on every year, and he said they must have one of those.
Ted: (Chuckles) No young man, your Dad was pulling your leg. The government actually has to collect money from its citizens, the taxpayers, to finance all the neat things it does for us.
Timmy: Oh, I see. (Thanks for making look like an idiot, Pop.) So that’s how the government decides how much to tax people, then? By how much it spends each year?
Ted: Oh heavens, no. The government spends a lot more money than it collects in taxes most years. It’s called “deficit spending.”
Timmy: It sounds like we’re getting back to that Magic Money Machine thing again.
Ted: Not exactly. The government actually has to borrow the money from investors and pay them interest on it.
Timmy: Hmm. So each year the debt keeps building up? And the interest we have to pay on that debt keeps going up too?
Ted: Yep.
Timmy: But isn’t that kind of…stupid? If you keep doing that, you’ll eventually have more debt than you can keep up with, and the interest payments alone will be more than you can handle.
Ted: That’s true. But it’s even worse than that. We also have huge entitlement programs called Social Security and Medicare that pay benefits to retired people. We’re about to see a huge wave of people hitting retirement age, and we’re going to have a lot less people working and paying taxes and a lot more people clamoring for these government benefits. No one knows how the government is going to stay afloat financially when that happens.
Timmy: You’ve gotta be kidding me dude! How can that happen? Isn’t it illegal or something?
Ted: Nope. There’s nothing in the Constitution that constrains the way Congress handles our finances. The only limit on their spending habits is their own consciences. Which is to say there is no limit.
Timmy: How do these people SLEEP at night? Can’t they see how badly they’re screwing the country?
Ted: Have you seen the people who run things around here, son? Most of them are over 50 and they aren’t likely to be around when the financial time bomb finally explodes. They’re leaving it for your generation to deal with. And they keep getting reelected, so they figure the voters must feel the same way they do.
Timmy: WHAT!?!? What is WRONG with you people? (He had turned red and was glaring at the adults in the crowd, most of whom were avoiding eye contact.) Why do you keep electing people who are hosing your children and grand children with these hare-brained financial decisions?
At this point most of the adults in the crowd had started to slink away and Timmy’s embarrassed parents were tugging at his arm, trying to drag him off. But I stood there, transfixed by his youthful indignation, and he noticed me staring at him.
He pointed at me and said “Well, what have you got to say to the younger generation, Mister?”
I just shrugged and said “Hey, don’t blame me kid. I vote Libertarian.”
No comments:
Post a Comment