Fat Cats Are Fat Cats

How is it that the richest country in the civilized world can be experiencing such financial upheaval? Is it the greedy corporations, the corrupt politicians, the subversive communists, or the malevolent terrorists that have brought us to this point? Maybe it's a combination of them all! Maybe, but whenever I point my finger at someone else, I have three fingers pointed back at myself.

I am guilty because I am living on borrowed money just like our government, and I am demanding more services and considerations. The politicians respond to my demands by borrowing more money to give out the candy that we all want. Now that the economy is in a wreck, the conventional wisdom looks likes absurd foolishness. Borrow and spend sounds no better whether it is the government doing it or the individual. This house of cards has begun to fall and repairing it is a temporary fix at best.

Instead of demanding the government bail us out, we need to demand that the govenrment be fiscally responsible. Why? Because the goverment's source of income is your income. Every program, department, bailout, etc. begins with what Washington takes from our paychecks. The more that is taken from us, the less there is for us--to pay our debts, to fund our retirement, to send our kids to college.

Much is said about the greedy CEO's and Wall Street types that have drained businesses of billions of dollars. Yet little is said of the greedy, power hungry senators and representatives that have drained the American people of billions of dollars. Fat cats are fat cats. The one distinction is that business moguls have to provide a service or product to earn your money. You voluntarily surrender your money in return for what is offered. Government moguls whimsically decide that more money is needed to fund a pet project then pass a law that allows them to involuntarily take your money in return for nothing.

Once we decide as a nation that we can no longer live the high roller life style, we will stop those in the goverment from doing the same. Think about it, not only do we have to pay the freight for our own excessive living, we also have to pay for the overspending of an out of control government. If we are not careful, the politicians will bankrupt us all.

Change, Not A Shame

Now that the elections are over, we have to return to the real world. All the promises that have been made will now be tempered by the stark reality of hard economic times. Although the government has the power to create jobs, it has no income producing ability to pay for those jobs. So every government created position comes with the built in necessity of gathering taxes to pay the salaries.

When someone in the goverment says, "We are going to put the American people back to work," beware, that also means we are going to tax the American people so that we will have the money. The way the economy is right now, increasing taxes would only cause greater hardship in the form of more cutbacks, less hiring, and less spending.

There was a clarion call for change during the election. We do need change! We need to change from a selfish, greedy nation of consumers to a nation of benevolent givers who know when enough is enough. No longer can we afford the lifestyles of the rich and famous that encourage us to spend more than we make and then when we can no longer bear up under the payment pressure bailout and want to be bailed out by others.

We have to change from a culture of assumed priviledge to one of appreciative responsibility. No doubt we have been blessed as a nation, but rather than using our great wealth and resources prudently, we have squandered them. Now we stand at the precipice of economic meltdown that can only truly be reversed by a fundamental change in our governmental, business, and personal financial habits.

Change will begin when there is a realization that the rampant narcism has to end. We must once again see ourselves as a vital part of the whole willing to make the necessary sacrifices so that we pass on to our progeny the same or better opportunities, freedoms, and global position that we have enjoyed. The immortal words of a beloved president still ring true, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."