QUALITY OF LIFE AND THE NATIONAL DEBT

Why do people think the way they do? As an example, think about our national debt. For some reason, conservatives in the richest nation in the world, the United States, have convinced the people the have to live like poppers because of national debt. They have convinced the population that we have this tremendous national debt and have no way of paying for it other than cutting spending: health care, social security, public educations, food stamps, welfare of all kinds, etc. They act like there is no money in the country to pay off the debt. We are so far in debt that we cannot even afford to take care of the poor.

They often use the family analogy to personalize the debt: both parents work and earn a wages but spend more than they earn. They have children they want to send to college but cannot afford it. They have house payments, car payments, and some unexpected medical expense that throws them in to debt beyond what they are capable of paying. They borrow money, which makes things worse. Therefore, the only solution possible is simple, cut spending—everybody knows that. This is their very real life experience. They know and sense that debt is bad.

The folks saying this are the working families themselves. The husband and wife both know they are working as hard as they can work. They cannot work more, still the unpaid bills pile up. They are so far in debt they can not borrow more. They realize there are only so many hours in a day; therefore, chose to go to school, even college, to increase your hourly earning potential but the tuition is so expensive they cannot afford it. They seem trapped. They have a political party that is constantly telling them because the country is in debt so they are in debt. The party points out that the debt size—17 trillion National dollars means each person own like $53,000. We cannot borrow more. Because of our personal experience, we know this is true.

However, they should realize that the country is not a family that is working itself into exhaustion. They  should know that the richest do not contribute to the “family” well being of the country; corporations do not pay taxes. It is like a husband that earns money but does not contribute to maintaining the family—as they are prone to say; it is their money, they earned it, so they deserve to keep it. To say corporations do not pay taxes sounds like too bold a statement that cannot be true, but it is. I say again; corporations do not pay taxes; they don not contribute to the “family”. That 1% of the population has tax accountants and lawyers who invest their money in non-taxable accounts or hide it overseas.

The bottom line is simple. We live in a rich country and should enjoy a life style better that those living in poor country. The reason we have a huge debt is not that we don’t work hard enough or that we do not pay our bills; the reason is that the rich do not pay taxes. The amazing thing is that they have convinced you that you need to live in poverty because of food stamps, social security, and Obamacare—and you believe it!   

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