Showing posts with label taxes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taxes. Show all posts

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Whatever Happened To Fiscal Responsibility?

For most of us, when we make buying decisions, don't we first stop and ask, "Can we afford this?" We weigh the options, delay gratification sometimes, sharpen our pencils and decide accordingly.

Why does congress pass massive spending bills, then a few weeks later say that we don't have any money and "can we raise the debt ceiling?" I thought that debt ceilings were created as a means of keeping the government from spending like there's no tomorrow? Does anyone there give a moment's thought to the meaning of Fiscal Responsibility?


This is a story from a couple weeks ago:


https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/13/us-will-hit-its-debt-limit-thursday-start-taking-steps-to-avoid-default-yellen-warns-congress.html


Could this be why people play video games, watch TV, get wasted. The more you know, the more depressing it is. The more our government spends today on inefficient programs that do nothing to solve real world problems, the more concerned that we're going to be alive to see that dismal day when our Social Security benefits are cut, or eliminated.


Considering the fact that only half of the 10,000 Baby Boomers who turn 65 every day have savings and are relying wholly on government checks to survive, it's hard to imagine what will happen in about a dozen years.


This week I read that the end of Social Security could be as early as 2035. It had been 2037. It's not too difficult to see where this is all heading. The word "grim" comes to mind.


In case you missed it, here's my article about the Baby Boomer Death Clock.


* * * * 


My apologies for not being more cheerful today. It may be due to the frequency of having had to blow my driveway this winter, or perhaps the fact that the rats are back in the goose barn. (I wish we could get rid of the rats in government. At least the ones in the barn can be poisoned.) 


At least the sun is out. That's a good thing. 

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Returning to Earth

"It's the stupid hope of getting something for nothing that corrupts people." ~ Donald Burkett, in Jim Harrison's Returning to Earth, commenting on gambling.

This weekend I started reading Jim Harrison's compelling sequel to True North called Returning to Earth. It's the story of a half breed Chippewa-Finnish man dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, told in first person by both himself and his wife.

All the great novelists aspire to writing something with a timeless significance that expresses something more than the pedantic day-to-day. You can tell from the start that Harrison has succeeded in creating a story that will compel us to face the big picture questions that torment the private spaces of human hearts. That's the real achievement of the great books, to create a context for exploration of these deeper life issues.

Harrison's earlier novellas include the silver screen achievement Legends of the Fall, starring Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt, a story bigger than life and revealing of both its expanse and depth.

While listening to the unabridged audio version of the book this quote about gambling jumped out at me. I would say it "jumped from the page" if I were reading a regular book, and upon hearing it I pulled over to write it on a scrap of paper as a start point to this sequence of thoughts.

Gambling is a great deception. Donald Burkett learned this early in life, after a significant losing hand. It is not a central theme in the book, mentioned only in passing, but it is a sharp insight. How is it that our tax dollars, then, are being used to promote this deceptive tactic by advertising lotto, Powerball games, state lotteries and the like? Should not the government be on the side of truth and virtue? It's shameful and sad that our own tax dollars are being devoted to studying human behavior to determine which games of chance will most successfully pull greenbacks out of poor peoples' wallets, for it is the poor and ignorant who are most vulnerable to these enticements.

Where is the outrage? Why do our leaders claim to be on the side of the poor while simultaneously supporting an activity that preys on their false hopes and is mathematically arranged to insure that they lose?

Have you ever met anyone who bought a house with winnings from gambling? I have known two who lost their homes from gambling losses. One was through a Saturday night bingo habit which led to bankruptcy.

I have a friend who says the purpose of Powerball is to make poor people less hateful of the rich, because if they win the Powerball they will be rich at some point. The notion strikes me a bizarre, but maybe there’s something to it. No one likes being hated, and that probably applies to the rich and powerful as much as anyone. Giving a poor man the hope that he might be a peer someday, even if it’s a false hope, just might be the ticket.

As for Jim Harrison, the setup is good and I look forward to finishing my read.

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