My sister’s first husband (and the biological father of my niece and nephew) passed away recently at the age of 47. When I heard the news, I didn’t ask about the cause of death. I didn’t need to. Nobody who knew him would have needed to.
John wasn’t just a lifelong alcoholic. He was the type of alcoholic you read about in the original Alcoholics Anonymous “big book.” The quantities of alcohol he poisoned his body with were… prodigious, for lack of a better word. I would share an example or two if I thought anyone would believe it possible for a man to have drunk that much booze.
His drinking wrought total and complete devastation and ruin upon him, yet he never changed course. Day after day, gallon after gallon, year after year…for John it was ever the same.
And then he died, because….well….what else was supposed to happen?
While no man knows the future, it sometimes doesn’t take a genius to make an accurate prediction. Drink like John did…eventually an organ will fail and you will die. Practice the piano for two hours a day…you’ll eventually get pretty good at it. Spend more money than you make for years on end…eventually there will come a day when you can’t borrow what you need anymore. (Most all of us probably know someone that has gone through this lately.)
Just as it didn't take a genius to know what was eventually coming for John, it doesn't require a masters in economics to know we are in big trouble with our federal budget. What predictions can we make about how this debt will effect us?
Before answering that question, let us take a brief assessment of the situation as it stands now. As a nation, we owe (roughly) $13,000,000,000,000. There are (roughly) 300,000,000 in our population. Divide those numbers and you will see that we owe (roughly) $40,000 for every man, woman and child. That is our debt.
This year, our government spent (roughly) $1,400,000,000,000 more than it took in. Close to $5,000 for each of us. That is our deficit. For those that have a hard time wrapping their brain around that number, it is (roughly) twice what we spent on the entire military. Because the Congress never did get around to passing a budget it’s hard to nail down the numbers, but as best I can tell the government borrowed 1 out every 3 dollars it spent. Think about that for minute. How long would your household stay afloat if you earned 60k per year and spent 90k?
I will go no further with assessment of the current situation, except to say it much worse when one considers the ramifications of the retirement of the baby boom and our obligation to them in terms of social security and Medicaid. That is, however, a little bigger bite than I am willing to chew right now.
So what do we have to look forward to? Will the US government default on its debt? Will the US mint just start printing money and devalue our currency? How about some Greek style austerity and the civil unrest that will surely follow?
Without some very courageous, swift and meaningful action by our congress and president, our hand will be forced and those will be our choices. And believing that congress will act courageously is kind of like believing that John would eventually put that bottle down.
