Go Ahead, You're Entitled

So the other day I got into a rather bitter exchange with a social network “friend” regarding excessive government spending. It started innocently enough. She posted that she had woken to the sound of workmen installing a new water heater at her home. I made a lame attempt at an Eagles parody: The last worthless water heater that she’d have to buy. She then volunteered that she hadn’t had to buy it at all, that there had been some monies set aside in California for energy conservation upgrades and that in addition to the installation of the water heater the workmen were re-insulating her attic and weather stripping her doors and windows as well. I sat there for a moment with question marks popping up all over my face like hives thinking about how California has a $26 Billion with a B budget deficit, and I should have placed a 9 volt battery on my tongue until the urge to respond passed, but there wasn’t one handy and so I commented that the monies were likely “set aside” from businesses that were leaving California for Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada because they could no longer afford to pay taxes and fees for such things. This was a mistake.

She’d been all warm and fuzzy about her good fortune and I was raining on her parade. I tried to point out that I hadn’t meant anything personal by my comment and that I would also have a difficult time turning down “free” improvements to my house were they made available. I mentioned that it was, in my opinion, a societal failure and not a personal one. She was not appeased.

Her profanity laced tirade continued, at least I think there was profanity. There were a lot of asterisks flying about so it was hard to say for sure. At one point I was referred to as a conspiracy theorist and then was told that California hadn’t had anything to do with it anyway, that it had been part of the “stimulus package”. “Ah, yes” I said. That $847 Billion give away that friends of the president elect had written during the transition and then shoved through the congress immediately after the inauguration before anyone could look at it. This was not received well either.

Soon angry looking “likes” started to accumulate after her comments and I became afraid of a gang action and so again I tried to reassure her that I hadn’t meant to attack her personally and was told that there was a time and place for everything and that my comments met neither requirement. I responded that it was, after all a social networking site, and pointed out that there was really no other place for me to broach the subject. Also that time means little on the internet. Generally there’s some time between interactions. She seemed to calm down a little.

Subsequent discussion revealed that she’d had a hard week and when this opportunity presented itself to her it was soothing. It felt as if something good was happening for her. I can relate totally, or totally relate. Whichever. She’s really quite a wonderful woman, generally funny and charming. She supports herself working as an actor and supplements that income with writing and e-marketing. She’s managed to make a nice, but not extravagant life for herself. She works hard, as she told me, pays her taxes, and she felt entitled. And there’s the rub.

We ALL work hard. Well, most of us work hard anyway, and we all pay our taxes and so we ALL must be entitled. The problem is that it’s all a scam. We’ve all been promised much more than there is. We pay our taxes and then think we’re entitled to take that money back out, but the money isn’t there. They spent that money years ago. In most cases they spent it years before they even had it, or used it as leverage to borrow money from this program or that and then spent it. They had our cake and they ate it too.

The numbers are almost too scary to look at, and so large as to defy understanding. Our unfunded liabilities now are well over $113 Trillion. Those are promises to pay that the congress has made in our names. Over $1 Million for each tax payer. This is a separate issue from the $14 Trillion that we’ve already borrowed. These unfunded liabilities are moneys that the congress has promised that we will borrow in the future. And still they tell us that we’re entitled, that EVERYONE is entitled.

Who ARE these people and why on earth have we let them deceive us for so long? Maybe we just had a bad half century and needed to feel like something good was happening.

But that's just what an average guy thinks.

One Trillion

I have some problems with the health care reform legislation that is currently being debated in the Senate. The fact that it’s meant to move the nation closer to Socialism is primary I suppose, and that it is intentionally over 2000 pages in length in order to keep people from being able to know and understand what’s in it. I don’t like the fact that it was designed to tear down and completely restructure a system that, while flawed and in need of reform, at least fits the national culture. I don’t like the fact that the new system is now being put together as if by a committee of tailors, each with a different sense of style and ideas about what the garment should look like. There is no pattern or plan, and what should be undertaken with all caution and an eye on the future is being rushed in order to take advantage of the political moment. But as much as all my other problems, I am troubled at the cost: over one Trillion dollars. And that’s a conservative estimate that relies on a whole slough of assumptions all converging to the same point at the same time. If past experience with Medicare is any indication, the costs could be off by as much as a factor of ten. But however educated that guess, it’s still just a guess. What is not a guess is the one Trillion dollar number now in front of us. People have grown used to hearing the numbers: Millions (Lottery); Billions (Oprah, Gates, Buffett), but the only place you hear the term Trillions of dollars is when you talk about the US economy. I think people would be well served it they knew just how big a number one Trillion is. So to that end I have compiled a list of references just to put a Trillion in context.

We begin with a simple unit of measure that everyone can appreciate: the Dollar bill. You’ve seen it before. It has George Washington on the obverse (face side) and a big ONE, the pyramid and the eagle on the reverse (other side). It’s 6 inches long, 2-1/2 inches wide, and 43/10,000 of an inch thick.

One Trillion of anything is one million piles of one million each.

One Million one dollar bills weigh 2,202 pounds. One Trillion Dollars collected all together would weigh over two Billion pounds and take a fleet of 55,065 semi tractor trailers to haul it.

Laid end to end One Trillion Dollars would stretch 94,696,969 miles. This is a distance three million miles farther away than the sun. So far that it would take light 8-1/2 minutes to make the trip.

That distance 94,696,969 miles would take you from the Earth to the moon and back 198 times. You could travel around the Earth 3,809 times.

If you were to neatly stack One Trillion new bills, it would make a stack 67,866 miles high. Carefully lie it down and it would wrap the Earth 8-1/2 times.

If you wanted to cover some of the Earth, you certainly could. One Trillion Dollars would cover a square area 61 miles by 61 miles. 3,736 square miles.

You would have to flood a regulation NFL football field (excluding end zones) to a depth of 30 feet and 8 inches to accumulate One Trillion Drops.

And finally:

If one day you turned your kitchen faucet on full flow and then got distracted........ you could leave the house, go to college, complete your degree, date, marry, start a family, get divorced, date, re-marry, start another family, and 9-1/2 years later when you went back to your house, you would be there in plenty of time to shut off the water before One Trillion drops had gone down the drain.

I’ve composed this blog to try and illustrate the magnitude of one small piece (one trillion) of what I consider to be the main problem that our nation faces today, and that is runaway entitlement spending. Our legislators, for as long as I can remember, have pandered, wheeled and dealt, and greased the ways for their own political ambitions without regard for the future. Sometimes the spending has been done with the best of intentions, but still with no regard for the true affordability of the “project”. And now my son and daughter along with you and I, and your sons and daughters, as citizens, owe over $39,000 to the national debt. In a few years when they begin their working lives that number will suddenly jump to the $111,000 the each tax “payer” now owes. It saddens me to know that in 5 years no matter what we do this number will be much higher.

We are living in a remarkable time. Depending on your point of view, it may be either transformative or catastrophic. Whatever your politics I beg of you to please pay attention to the numbers, to know just how astronomical they are. When you hear that the Senate has a One Trillion Dollar bill under consideration or that they plan to extend the national debt ceiling by One Trillion Eight Hundred Billion Dollars (increasing our credit limit) I beg of you to think of the numbers and ask yourself “can we afford this?” Ask yourself: “do I have the right to obligate my children and their children, and theirs to a lifetime of debt repayment?”.

And that’s what an average guy thinks.