Our country is 35 Trillion dollars in debt! How can this be? We are arguably the most powerful country in the world! Arguably the richest country in the world! Yet we have more debt than we can hope to pay off! Why do I say that? I don’t think most people realize how much a trillion dollars is.
I found a good definition/explanation of a trillion that helps me to visualize that vast number. Scott Shellady, who is an internationally recognized figure and Adjunct Professor at DePaul University (2015) explains a trillion dollars as follows: “If you take a clock face, and each second is a dollar, it will take 11 days to run a million bucks off that clock in seconds. If you try to do a billion seconds, it takes 31 years. If you run a trillion seconds off of the clock, it would take 31,688 years.” In case you were curious, 35 trillion would take 1,109,080 years- in seconds!
The definition of a trillion, found in Oxford Languages Dictionary: A million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 10 to the 12th power).
How could the greatest nation in the world, in my opinion, fall that deep into debt? I’ll offer one more opinion. We are in this deep of debt because we are being lead/guided by ignorant and arrogant people.
An example would be, Alan Greenspan, Greenspan was Chairman of the U. S. Federal Reserve Board from 1987 to 2006 (The face of the Federal Reserve Bank, which is the regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, arguably the most influential financial system in the world). In an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press” that was originally published on August 7th, 2011, Greenspan answered a question about the United States credit rating having recently been lowered by Standard and Poor’s credit reporting agency, due to the extreme debt held by the United States at that time. Greenspan’s reply was, “The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default.”
If one of my children or grandchildren had given that same answer, I would have quickly schooled them on the realities of life- but this was the one-time big money man of the U.S. Government! How could we not be in debt?
A basic moral and economic rule is debt accrued must be paid!
I can not remember the last time this country had a balanced budget, can you? What do you think would happen if any of us tried to run our households’ on “deficit spending?” My guess is that we would be on the street with all of our belongings while the new owners of our houses moved in! Who could argue with that outcome?
One last thing, Ronald Reagan’s successful plan to destroy The Soviet Union was to outspend them in the arms race. At that time, we had the resources. God help us if someone should issue that same challenge. Would you lend money to a country that was 35 trillion dollars in debt?
I hear people who should know better saying that we should support the “illegal aliens” we allowed to knowingly trespass on our soil. Others are saying we should “forgive” college government loans. I am saying we should stop spending like we just stole dad’s credit card and realize that we are closer to bankruptcy as a nation than is safe. Much closer!
We are the last lifeboat of the free world. We are filled overcapacity, and we are headed further into the ocean asking if anyone else needs help. We must turn around, head to shore and unload. We can not help others until we strengthen our foundation! We are, at this time, lacking the grown up in the room who needs to give some direction. Stop frivolous overspending!
If Greenspan’s way of thinking is acceptable we should find a country that’s willing to lend us a lot of money for bombs and ammunition. At some point, the countries we owe all this money to are going to come knocking on our door. I believe we would have to print a lot of money if we start with the knowledge that 35 trillion dollars, off the top, is not backed up by anything.
Sorry I started out with a tough one. How about this to lighten the mood a little?
I do not like social media posts that are not clear. I mean the one’s that show a picture of someone with a caption, “We are so proud!” or “I never thought this day would come!”
I joined social media, partially, as a way to connect with some of my many relatives who live out of town. I have seen some of them once or twice and thought it would be great to catch up in a casual way. I have also “Friended” some of my high school classmates who live out of town, friends who retired years ago and post occasionally.
If cousin Ricky, who I last saw at a reunion in 1989, posts, “This is the happiest day of our lives!” with a young female’s photograph my thoughts are. Is this a child who just got married? Graduated? Had a baby?… Will I seem uncaring to just hit like and move on. Would I be presumptuous to say “Congratulations!” Is this a younger picture of his wife? Is he married?
I’m sure that out of his 300 followers 25 or 50 know just what is going on. I wish that, for the rest of us, he would write a little more narrative. Just saying- as a disclaimer: I do not have any cousins named “Ricky” and the scenario listed above is made up. Any similarity to actual events is purely coincidental!
WE ARE SO PROUD!
I disagree with the big push by many politicians in many jurisdictions to raise the minimum wage. I live near Chicago and they recently enacted legislation to increase the minimum wage to $13/hr.
It’s apparent to me that these politicians never worked or owned small businesses. I owned a repair garage before I became a cop. I hired a kid to clean floors a couple of times a week. Business improved and I hired another kid. I paid them the minimum wage at the time, and they were thrilled to get some spending money in their pockets. If I had been forced, by the government, to increase their salary I would have laid one or both of them off and cleaned the floors myself.
One of the arguments for minimum wage increase is that people can’t live on it. Minimum wage is not supposed to be for heads of the household. It is for entry level workers like high school students or people looking to supplement income.
A problem I see with increasing the minimum wage is that it causes all wages to go up. That sounds great, on paper. But, as a small business owner I lived on a tight budget. Had I been forced to pay my floor washers more, my mechanics would have complained. If the bottom wages are forced up by legislation, the low wage earners could be laid off because they are no longer affordable- as I would have done. Another problem is that the larger businesses with more capitol will find ways to eliminate low wage positions altogether. It’s already happening. Most of the large retail and grocery stores are installing “self-check outs.” McDonalds has equipped many of its’ restaurants with their own form of self-checkouts.
Raising a large family on a policeman’s salary I opted not to play golf. Now that I’m retired I’m trying to “catch up” and learn this game. I have heard that God created golf to keep humanity humble and now that I’ve tried to learn it, I believe that’s true.
I’ve been trying to golf for about two years. Once I feel I have a handle on my long game, drives. I realize my irons and putting are on life support. I try to work on those and my driving game suffers. I’m scratching my head so much I have just realized I’m bald- my kids and ex-wife have now assured me the baldness was there long before the poor golf game. At any rate, I enjoy golf and look forward to the time that I don’t feel compelled to burn my scorecard before any outsiders can see it.
Thanks for reading to the end. I hope you enjoyed it. Please comment on what you liked, what you agree with or what you don’t like.
Thanks
Phil