The Chains of Imperial Debt
By Ryan Healy | December 10, 2007
People in the U.S. have almost no hope of ever becoming debt free. Because debt isn’t only a personal matter. It’s a national issue as well. And America seems to think it can continue to spend money it doesn’t have for things it doesn’t need. After all, why not? the nation thinks. We can simply pass the bill on to our children. They will thank us.
Despite the situation, I believe a person should strive to become debt free in the sense that he personally owes no man anything. But to truly owe no man anything would be next to impossible.
For instance, you will never own your property. Never. Want proof? Try not paying your real estate taxes this year. Or the next.
You’ll quickly discover who really owns your property. His name is Uncle Sam. And Uncle Sam has debts to pay. Debts so enormous that the average person cannot fathom how big they are.
I turn to page 131 in William Bonner and Lila Rajiva’s Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets for perspective on today’s public spectacle.
The blessings that one generation enjoys are passed on to the next generation as a curse. A child born in the United States in 1900 came into the world naked and free of debt. Today, American children pop into the world and are immediately swaddled in the chains of empire and imperial debt. All their lives they will have to be paying them off–debts from bonuses paid to government employees in 1986, from bombs dropped in 2003, from boondoggles built in 1995, from checks written in 1974, from promises made to old people in 2002, from the expenses of hurricanes in 2005, and so on. The poor children will have to drag around with them the entire pathetic history of America’s financial decline.
“Stay the course,” says Bush. “We cannot stop now.”
“Damned bastards,” the next generation is likely to grumble.
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2 Responses to “The Chains of Imperial Debt”
Comments
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December 14th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Sounds like an interesting book. Have you finished reading it yet? It sounds like they might lay an unfair amount of blame on the current administration.
If you can stomach another book on America’s financial future, you should read The Coming Generational Storm. The book details the crushing burden ss, medicare, and medicaid will become over the next fifty decades or so.
December 14th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Actually, the writers cover much of history, not only American history. And they are happy to heap blame on FDR, Eisenhower, Alan Greenspan, etc.
Our current problems weren’t created by a single president or administration.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I like this quote from the page you linked to: “walkers will outnumber strollers.”
Hmmm… Maybe it’s time to go into the walker-making business. There’s probably plenty of time to become the Graco of walkers.