Have you ever said yourself, “Uh, oh, I’m broke”! What’s the first thing you think of doing? Tightening the old belt, right? And then what? What if you really can’t do without much more? What then?
You go out and look for a job don’t you? Surely, I’m not the only one who has worked three jobs at once to make a go of it am I?
What if you already have a job and you’re broke in spite of that? For heavens sakes, you don’t get rid of the job you have already just to cut expenses do you? Do you say, “Gee, I can’t afford to commute, so I’ll quit”.
Now, let’s say you’re a self-employed entrepreneur and you’re broke. What do you do? You go out and look for new clients and new opportunities to make the money you need!
So why aren’t our state legislators and members of Congress doing that? What’s with this belt-cutting-of-public-employee-jobs-only mindset? Where’s the industriousness to go out and find new ways to being more money in?
The United States has incredible resources. Is there no way we can serve people in the rest of the world and make money for doing it? Do we always have to go out and waste trillions on bombs and selling other people risky financial products that are likely to self-destruct?
What about the areas of the world needing help nation-building. Do we just give them all that money for free while at the same time vilifying hardworking Americans who are trying to re-build their own lives?
Do we say, “Oh, just let those hurricane victims pick up the pieces themselves–we’re too busy saving the world to help them.” Or do we find a way to sell the nation-builders what they need and get paid back for it?
And whatever happened to taxes? Aren’t taxes how governments are supposed to raise money when they’re broke? Who says taxes can’t be raised? Who thinks taxes won’t be raised soon? And there you go again, cut more jobs and who will have the money to pay more taxes.
Ok! Now let’s say you’re broke and you don’t have a job.You decide to look for a new job, right? Let’s say you have no clients? You decide to go out and get new clients, right? But your clothes are all old and worn! What then? Do you spend money to get new clothes for that job interview or for networking with new client prospects?
With ten percent of other American’s out of work you bet you do! You get yourself a new haircut, too! And if you’re high enough up on the ladder, you get yourself a new car or at least shine up the old one!
So why are our state legislators and Congress telling the US to stick with wearing old clothes?
Education is essential for getting money. I’ve read that many “self-made” millionaires didn’t get an extensive education. But they did learn to read, write, and add, and these days, to use technology to communicate in public schools. Furthermore, they hired people who were educated to make money for them. Are we all fine and dandy with the idea that they can now hire educated foreigners instead of uneducated Americans?
Infrastructure is key to keeping the American economy sound, and this isn’t something you can privatize. The Army Corps of Engineers is out of funds to dredge the Mississippi River. Do we imagine that foreigners are going to come over here and dredge the river for us so they can get deliveries of our grain and corn from the Midwest? What will farmers do now? Ship grain by plane?
How far can we go just by tightening ye olde belts? How many government employees will it take to pay off all our debt?
That’s what you always do first when you’re broke isn’t it? Pay off all your debts? Oh, come on! You look for ways to make more money.
OK! You still want to belt-tighten and get rid of public employees!
How about all those legislators with big fat salaries and perks? Why don’t we get rid of those? Let’s just have one dictator run the country. Or maybe just one party like the Communist party in Russia. Just think! We could save billions of dollars wasted on political campaigns each year!
We don’t need all those politicians and governors do we? I mean we’re broke, aren’t we? We’ve got to tighten “our” belts. Somebody has got to pay! Why not them?
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