Saturday, November 10, 2012

Voting Is An Act of Aggression


I was hashing out the recent national election in my little ground hog mind and considering permanent hibernation when I had a thought. I'm almost sure the thought was not original with me and I'm sure that many know this and do not care. Let me just say it. The truth about elections is that the act of voting is an act of aggression against your neighbor. It may very well be every citizen's right and duty to vote, but it is also a very aggressive action. When you complete your ballot and run it through the reader or drop it in the box or seal it in the envelope you are telling everyone in your nation that you know exactly how they should live and if they disagree, well then they are wrong, hateful, backward, elitist, communist, fascist or whatever.

Do not try and tell me this is not true. You know in your heart it is true. Think back to the times you have voted and how you felt afterward. Did a smugness come over you? Did you think to yourself, "well I guess I showed them" or maybe it's just your way of "sticking it to the man"? Whatever the case, the real nasty truth of it is that in voting we decide how to steal from our neighbor, how to make them do things we think they should do and how to make them tolerate things that others may well think are immoral, distasteful or unpleasant and also we vote to stop them from doing things; whatever those things may be.

This is certainly a peaceful way of settling disagreements over public policy, but I am not sure it is good in it's present configuration. I mean, what if you have an electorate that has more takers than givers for instance? Should the takers be able to demand more from the givers year after year thus enslaving them? This is just one example of the problem. There are many more. So maybe it's time to define or redefine who should be included in the "electorate".  Most would say that involves discrimination. You can't do that. Everyone has the right to vote. To this I have to say categorically that every one SHOULD NOT have the right to vote.

If you live your life on the public dole for any reason, you should not be allowed to vote. If you do not pay income or property taxes, you should not be allowed to vote. If you are mentally handicapped and you are unable to vote on your own without assistance, you should not be allowed to vote. If you are a government employee at any level that makes their living from other people's taxes, you should not be allowed to vote. Finally, if you are an elected official you should not be allowed to vote.

Think about it. Should I be able to force my neighbor to give me a raise in pay? Should I be able to tell my neighbor that they have to pay for my child's education even though they do not have children? Should I be forced to pay for someone else's bad habits? Why should I have to pay for a smoker's health care? Why should I have to pay for some one's birth control or their abortion simply because they have no self control? Why should I be forced to pay for some one's drug rehab? Why should I have to pay for insolvent banks and corporations?; let them go bankrupt and start anew.

You say to me, what about the notion of compassion and helping others? What about your obligation as a Christ follower? To this I answer that I can and do help those in need regardless of the reasons for that need. I do so privately and as a personal choice. I do not do it because I am forced by law to do it or because someone demands I do it. Compassion should be voluntary. It should be one on one. A faceless, nameless government cannot be truly compassionate. The government has no money of it's own. It only has what it takes from us. If government is to be compassionate to one class of voter, it must be It must penalize the other voters by taking the money for that "compassion".

The bottom line is that the nature of the electorate has changed in the United States. There are more takers in the electorate than there are givers.  The givers cannot afford the takers anymore. I think we will have to join you and help ourselves at the public trough too, but then who will write the checks?

Let me close by saying that the election results this year would have made no difference in anything I just said. Our nation will have a $16 trillion deficit at the end of the year. Sometime next year it will hit $22 trillion. You could tax every citizen of the US 100% for ten years and still not pay it. Something has to give here and I'm sick of it being me. The answer to the problem is not pleasant either, but it may be the quickest way to end the problem. I may offer that answer soon.  I need to think some more. In the meantime, if your panties are all up in a bunch about what I said regarding redefinition of the electorate, my advice is to enjoy the snuggy. It's one of those things I like to provide from time to time.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Where We Are Headed As A Nation



I was reading Pat Buchanan today and he lays out some interesting facts about where the US is headed as a nation in the next 30 years. Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with who won the election Tuesday. These things would have been true regardless of who was elected. I might also add that neither one of them would have been able to fix it this problem even though everyone in government has known it was coming for a very long time. It's all about retiring Baby Boomers..the generation born after WWII but prior to about 1967. Here are some excerpts from Pat's column:

Consider. Between 1946 and 1964, 79 million babies were born – the largest, best-educated and most successful generation in our history. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both born in 1946, were in that first class of baby boomers.
The problem.
Assume that 75 million of these 79 million boomers survive to age 66. This means that from this year through 2030, an average of nearly 4 million boomers will be retiring every year. This translates into some 11,000 boomers becoming eligible for Medicare and Social Security every single day for the next 18 years.
Add in immigrants in that same age category and the fact that baby boomers live longer than the Greatest Generation or Silent Generation seniors, and you have an immense and unavoidable increase coming in expenditures for our largest entitlement programs. 

And then there's this...

Benefits will have to be curbed or cut and payroll taxes will have to rise, especially for Medicare, to make good on our promises to seniors.

As for the rest of our federal budget of nearly $4 trillion, we have run four consecutive deficits of over $1 trillion. To bring that budget to balance, freezes would have to be imposed and cuts made in spending for defense and other social programs.From California to Wisconsin to New York, we see the process at work at the state level. Government salaries are frozen, government payrolls are cut, government pensions and programs are scaled back.
California and Illinois are on the precipice of default. Cities like Detroit, Birmingham, Stockton and San Bernardino are already there. 

And Finally..

Europe has arrived at where we are headed. In the south of the old continent – Spain, Italy and Greece – the new austerity has begun to imperil the social order. In the north, the disposition to be taxed to pay for other nations' social safety nets is disappearing.

With government in the U.S. at all levels consuming 40 percent of gross domestic product, and taxes 30 percent, taxes will have to rise and government spending be controlled or cut. The alternative is to destroy the debt by depreciating the dollars in which it is denominated – i.e., by Fed-induced inflation. 

Pat's right. We are in a bad way. I can see retirement age being pushed back to 75. I can see confiscation of IRA's, 401k's and pensions. It is coming. The growing storm in the east is coming our way and those of us that live through it will suffer a great deal. We Baby Boomers have been called both the most productive and the most selfish generation in human history. As a generation, we worked continuously but it was to feed our pleasures. We could not get enough. The political class of Baby Boomers' is the same way. These politicians spent what was in the bank and printed more to give back. The worst part is, we as voters did nothing to rein them in when we could have done so. The generations after that will be left with our debt and they have a right to be angry. They will get nothing. Their parents stole the food from their mouth and they will be slaves for the rest of their lives...unless...they rise up and refuse to pay the debt we left them. It is going to be a very dangerous time ahead. It will get ugly. It might even be wise to leave the country...except...the problem is the same almost everywhere. The world will be a very different place in 100 years, but the next 30 will be hell.