A common sense approach to bankruptcy is the recognition that no matter how much money you will be able to acquire you cannot possibly ever pay it back to your creditors. This is not what is required for a government regulating agency to declare a banking facility bankrupt, but it is a valid depiction of the state of our national debt and our ability to reduce it to a manageable quantity. The level of taxation that would be required to eliminate our national debt, which is climbing by astronomical numbers, would put such a strain on the fiscal ability of most Americans to survive we would instantly revert to a third world status. This is the danger we are confronted with by a free spending government unwilling to restrain its reach.
Yet the brain dead politicians unwilling to recognize the gravity of this approach continue to talk of more spending as if this is the only variety of politics they know. No person who tries to live within his means adopts this nonsensical philosophy in his personal life for the consequences are crystal clear. The politicians foster the illusion in their fantasy oriented campaigns that the government has access to unlimited funds and people will always be willing to pay more in taxes and currency devaluation and ignore their personal survival needs in favor of a handout program that costs more than if they just kept what they had earned. Evidently there are more than a few Americans who don’t understand there is a cost to the promises of free or inexpensive benefits the government is willing to provide that often exceeds the benefits.
Suppose you planted an apple tree and supplied yourself with apples. And suppose you grew more apples than you needed so you sold some to your friends and neighbors. In a world of limited government ,taxation would not enter into these transactions and the cost of the commodity would be very low. Now enter the government. First of all you would be required to charge a sales tax on your apples and pay an income tax on the profits of your sales. This means your apples would cost more. As the government needed more apple police to insure your apples were worm free and that all were stickered with those aggravating little placards, the amount of tax needed to pay these agents would go up. In addition all agents need bosses so that cost must be covered, and the elected officials who passed these silly laws would have to be paid and what used to be a cheap apple is now a gilded luxury available to only the affluent or privileged. Multiply all of his regulation and taxation by every good and service and you see how inflated the price of a commodity or service becomes. Compound this with the government printing money to cover its shortfalls and you see a soaring national debt without any safeguards to reverse the trend or the outcome.
At what point does the recognition of bankruptcy by a government become so blatant that it cannot be ignored? When the interest on the debt consumes the ability of the government to function. Government can borrow but when its borrowing and printing presses degrade the currency so badly that the money becomes practically worthless the bankruptcy cannot be ignored. The poor and the middle class become synonymous. Money is no longer a convenient medium of exchange. Bare essentials either are non-existent or are items found only on the black market. Government agents are everywhere, overpaid and motivated to enforce with vigor to gain promotions and recognition. Demagogues arise to remedy the situation by attacking the private sector and compounding the issues and costs. The police state has evolved from a free country that allowed the government to expand without limitation. And only a rebellion and civil war will result. Of course those in power will call for unity against a scapegoat which will ensure retention of power and an ongoing bankruptcy where the citizens pay for the eventual wars and an ever lower standard of living. This is full and unbridled bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy can be avoided with good fiscal management which basically consists of not spending more than you can generate in revenue. It requires a constant review of spending and a willingness to curb excessive spending. It requires developing reserves for eventual emergencies , cost cutting , consolidation and budget restraints that eliminate political pork and entitlements. This is not a bitter pill except for those parasites that believe those who earn should be drained of their earnings by those who are charged with protecting individual rights. Demanding property is not a proper method of defending individual rights.
We have a long way to go to indoctrinate the politicians of the future that they need to restrict their reach and limit their excesses. Our academic institutions are fed by the excesses of government and like the politicians think the system works and needs only be retained. Intellectually, verified by history, the trend of excessive government debt has but one conclusion. This is being ignored and/or evaded in academia who like the politicians believe they can get away with this evasion. Experience being the dear teacher she is, her fool pupils will learn by no other. And they have the audacity to claim to be leaders. So too are the first lemmings over the cliff.
Tags: government
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