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
----------------------------------------------
