Generations and Solutions
Paul Krugman and his minions aside, most of us know that the massive federal debt (currently $17.5 TRILLION) is nothing short of inter-generational theft.
So often we complain that our worthless lawmakers are "stealing from our grandchildren."
But is that really true?
Of course, no-one (N O - O N E, nobody AT ALL) is calling for a balanced budget but let's just pretend for a minute.
Let's pretend we could balance the budget tomorrow. Let us pretend we could actually have a budget surplus in this twisted day and age.
And if we're dreaming we might as well dream BIG - let's imagine we could recreate the largest US Federal Budget Surplus in HISTORY ($236 Billion in the year 2000.) and do it every year, year-in year-out, for as long as it takes to pay off that huge debt.
How long would it take Paul Krugman's progeny pay off his Ponzi scheme?
Well, PK is 61 years old. Leaving his real kids out of it, let's just assume his offspring follows the oft-stated average of 20 years per generation. (That's about how long it takes for one baby to grow up and have another.)
OK, Paul's child is 41 and already paying, so is his grandchild at 21. His great-grandchild is only one year old but she'll get her turn when she starts working 15 years later (I started at 16, so have/will many others. Maybe not HER, but....)
Twenty years later (35 years from now), Krugman's great-great-grandchild will pick up the burden - as will, twenty years after that, his great-great-great grandson. In fact, his great-great-great-great-grandchild will dodge the bullet by only a year or so.
But this is a dream world of impossible expectations. What if we made it just a little more realistic - just the tiniest bit.
Assume every other condition remains the same but we can only manage the SECOND highest budget surplus in history - $127.3 billion in 2001.
If we still balance the budget tomorrow and keep it that way - and we pay down over a hundred billion a year, it'll take only... 137 years!
Paul Krugman's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild will write the last check to pay off the legacy of the "worst" generation.
Ten generations (including ourselves) - six of which as yet unborn - to pay off our folly.
And of course this is still living in a fantasy.
The obvious fact is that PK and his ilk have no intention of ever paying off this debt.
And some day, when the financial chicanery falls through,
when the artificially deflated interest on our Treasuries begin to rise from the lowest rates in history,
when the interest payment on all that debt doubles, triples, quadruples...! - the sh!t WILL hit the fan.
And then the pundits will say the obvious solution is to "forgive" this "crippling" debt,
and on that day untold trillions of dollars of invested wealth will disappear.
And our nation will fail.
Make no mistake we are talking financial collapse. Not a recession, not a depression, but the complete collapse of untenable economic "system".
And REAL bad things ALWAYS arise from such times.
We'll still be here. We'll still be Americans. But our Constitution will be "proven" "unworkable" and abandoned. And a strong-man WILL take over - they always do when the world goes to hell.
However, unlike the suppositions I started with, there is no fantasy here. This WILL happen. And it won't take generations.
But, there is an answer. It's not the answer to every problem we face, but it will buy us the time to work on all the rest.
A BALANCED BUDGET AMMENDMENT.
Nothing more - nothing less.
It can be done. It's just a constitutional amendment. We do them all the time (well, figuratively speaking). We just have to change some minds. Well, pretty much everybody's mind really, but still.
What could be more important.
Really.
-----------------
"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing." Thomas Jefferson
---- (SHOW YOUR WORK) ----
($17,514,000,000 / $236,000,000 per year = 74.2 years)
($17,514,000,000 / $127,300,000 per year = 137.58 years)
now he pays
now child pays,
now grandchild pays,
15 years later great-grandchild begins to pay,
35 years later great-great-grandchild
55 years later great-great-great-grandchild
75 years later great-great-great-great-grandchild
95 years later great-great-great-great-great-grandchild
115 years later great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild
135 years later great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild
----------------------------------------------
So often we complain that our worthless lawmakers are "stealing from our grandchildren."
But is that really true?
Of course, no-one (N O - O N E, nobody AT ALL) is calling for a balanced budget but let's just pretend for a minute.
Let's pretend we could balance the budget tomorrow. Let us pretend we could actually have a budget surplus in this twisted day and age.
And if we're dreaming we might as well dream BIG - let's imagine we could recreate the largest US Federal Budget Surplus in HISTORY ($236 Billion in the year 2000.) and do it every year, year-in year-out, for as long as it takes to pay off that huge debt.
How long would it take Paul Krugman's progeny pay off his Ponzi scheme?
Well, PK is 61 years old. Leaving his real kids out of it, let's just assume his offspring follows the oft-stated average of 20 years per generation. (That's about how long it takes for one baby to grow up and have another.)
OK, Paul's child is 41 and already paying, so is his grandchild at 21. His great-grandchild is only one year old but she'll get her turn when she starts working 15 years later (I started at 16, so have/will many others. Maybe not HER, but....)
Twenty years later (35 years from now), Krugman's great-great-grandchild will pick up the burden - as will, twenty years after that, his great-great-great grandson. In fact, his great-great-great-great-grandchild will dodge the bullet by only a year or so.
But this is a dream world of impossible expectations. What if we made it just a little more realistic - just the tiniest bit.
Assume every other condition remains the same but we can only manage the SECOND highest budget surplus in history - $127.3 billion in 2001.
If we still balance the budget tomorrow and keep it that way - and we pay down over a hundred billion a year, it'll take only... 137 years!
Paul Krugman's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild will write the last check to pay off the legacy of the "worst" generation.
Ten generations (including ourselves) - six of which as yet unborn - to pay off our folly.
And of course this is still living in a fantasy.
The obvious fact is that PK and his ilk have no intention of ever paying off this debt.
And some day, when the financial chicanery falls through,
when the artificially deflated interest on our Treasuries begin to rise from the lowest rates in history,
when the interest payment on all that debt doubles, triples, quadruples...! - the sh!t WILL hit the fan.
And then the pundits will say the obvious solution is to "forgive" this "crippling" debt,
and on that day untold trillions of dollars of invested wealth will disappear.
And our nation will fail.
Make no mistake we are talking financial collapse. Not a recession, not a depression, but the complete collapse of untenable economic "system".
And REAL bad things ALWAYS arise from such times.
We'll still be here. We'll still be Americans. But our Constitution will be "proven" "unworkable" and abandoned. And a strong-man WILL take over - they always do when the world goes to hell.
However, unlike the suppositions I started with, there is no fantasy here. This WILL happen. And it won't take generations.
But, there is an answer. It's not the answer to every problem we face, but it will buy us the time to work on all the rest.
A BALANCED BUDGET AMMENDMENT.
Nothing more - nothing less.
It can be done. It's just a constitutional amendment. We do them all the time (well, figuratively speaking). We just have to change some minds. Well, pretty much everybody's mind really, but still.
What could be more important.
Really.
-----------------
"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing." Thomas Jefferson
---- (SHOW YOUR WORK) ----
($17,514,000,000 / $236,000,000 per year = 74.2 years)
($17,514,000,000 / $127,300,000 per year = 137.58 years)
now he pays
now child pays,
now grandchild pays,
15 years later great-grandchild begins to pay,
35 years later great-great-grandchild
55 years later great-great-great-grandchild
75 years later great-great-great-great-grandchild
95 years later great-great-great-great-great-grandchild
115 years later great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild
135 years later great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild
----------------------------------------------
Previous comments... You are currently on page 3.
The mouthpieces - the leaders with the megaphones - are simple thieves lying to themselves.
John Q. Public is easily mislead.
— Thomas Jefferson
run amok, right? -- must be an Alinsky tactic! -- j
The central banks are not the perpetrators of this crime - they are the facilitators. The money was spent on politician's agendas. It was borrowed from nations, corporations, and just about every Tom, Dick and Harry in America.
T-bills are the foundation of every diversified holding. Indeed, they are the foundation of the world's economy.
To invalidate them - to say they are worth nothing - would be an economic crime beyond precedent.
You should prepare for the worst, of course, but if it's not too late to save it....
(Yeah, that one big IF!)
Not sure China would like that.
It would be easier to stop the pensions of the poticians who were part of the scheme, and that would be nearly impossible.
How are we as mere individuals to argue with this kind of group-think logic?
Since 1913, our currency has lost 97% of its purchasing power (due to designed-in inflation) and that same currency is an instrument of debt (hence "Federal Reserve Note) that the country has obligated itself to pay for the privilege of using the dollars the Fed creates out of thin air.
It can be argued that the Fed is, in fact, running a huge Ponzi scheme and we're paying for it through our system of debt-based currency. So, since this whole thing is nothing but a scam, why not just put a halt to it, invalidate the criminal debt, and put the criminals in jail? Do some basic research if you doubt anything I've said here.
I'm not sure I follow.
I wasn't saying growing *instead* of paying off. I was saying growing so we *can* pay off.
I agree with the need for a balanced budget amendment.
Who was it that advocated cutting all spending of all departments by one penny for every dollar?
Who, exactly, is the debt owed to? Well, a huge portion of it is owed to the so-called "central banks" that were instrumental in getting us into this quagmire of debt in the first place. What if we simply declared that debt null and void? Yep, we just invalidate the debt these banks have put us into, and move on. Oh, and yes, we arrest these thieves and put them in jail for their crimes!
Politicians ARE sensitive to public opinion, and people don't like to have their taxes raised all the time. That's why there are so many means of hidden taxation.
Public resistance is inevitable.
A Balanced Budget Amendment would be ours for the writing. Make it say what it needs to say.
But, as I said in the post, the BBA would not be the answer to all problems - it just buys us the time to deal with the rest.
Caught me napping on that one.
Ultimately doesn't change much though, for the reasons stated above.
We should not be hoping for rampant inflation to make a mountain of debt more manageable.
You need a series of amendments to correct the problems we face.
see: http://www.TheSocietyProject.org
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