I am not even going to bother citing the current national debt, because by tomorrow that number will be obsolete. If you have paid any attention to this issue, the amount of debt we are talking about is staggering. I can't even wrap my head around this number. If you look up stats on total wealth of countries of the world, our debt takes the #3 spot, greater than all the wealth of Japan; Only the US and China have more wealth than the US has debt.
Our debt is more than the wealth of all of south Asia, Latin America, and Africa COMBINED. Our debt is more than the wealth of the entire southern hemisphere.
The country has a spending problem.
Accountability
Don't think the national debt is a problem? You should, it's your money. And therefore it's your debt. And we are responsible for it.
No, you did not spend the money personally, but you voted for the people who did. They represent you, and they can only represent you if you bubble their name on that piece of paper. That gives them the power to spend your money. And for some reason we keep voting in the people who don't know restraint.
Priorities
Part of the problem is that we don't make it a priority, but we should. Now a lot of people in power push for mentalities that devalue our tax dollars; Vote for me because I will give your money to charity, to education, to peace efforts and reform, these are all good causes, and if you don't vote for me you are a bad person, a greedy, miserly scrooge.
.
Yes, and the reason they push these emotional arguments on you is because they have no logical, functional foothold for why you should put them in charge of your hard-earned cash. Don't get me wrong, I think charitable acts are wonderful and help build a better country, when practiced at the individual level and not the government level of society.
But you are not bad for not voting for somebody whose only skill is throwing your money at charity. Money is incredibly useful. Because money is so useful, and so much is built on top of it, being responsible with money is essential for the basic functions of the entire world. If we elect politicians who are bad with money, then these politicians will also be bad for the basic functioning of society.
Money is not evil
For you who think the bible says money is evil, it does not. It says the love of money is. This is an important distinction. Money is not inherently evil, no more than a gun or a stick or a car is inherently a murder weapon. While yes, it can be used for great evil, and evil people often pursue money at the cost of all else, it can also be used for much good.
Yes, you could buy meth with money, but you could also buy a gym membership. You could give your money to extremist terrorist organizations, or you could give your money to a disaster fund. You could hire a thug to rough somebody up, or you could pay somebody's medical bills.
Money is not good or evil, it is merely a tool, to be wielded for good or for evil, with skill or negligence.
Money functions
Money is how society functions. Money is the infrastructure on which society is built. Money is a common ground. Money is an agreement. Money is a ballot.
Isn't it fantastic that we can say we need this job done, here's some money to do it
, and that is accepted? We don't have to operate in a system of I-owe-you's, where the police man can only afford to patrol your street after you have given him a sack of potatoes or fixed his teeth or taught his children or whatever your profession is.
Sure you could get all that function without money, but I challenge you to do it more efficiently or effectively. It performs all these functions magnificently, until you start spending what you don't have.
Money is a ballot?
When you dig into it logically, it is apparent that liberty can only exist within a system of capitalism. It is literally impossible to have socialism and democracy under the same banner. This is because money is a ballot.
Whether you like it or not, every transaction is a vote to support something. Every cent keeps that company, that cause, that politician, around a little longer. Not only that, but because money is a ballot, giving your money to one entity over another means you are effectively electing them to represent you, in some little way. If you give somebody a lot of ballots, they get a lot of say. This means things like boycotts are an essential part of the democratic process.
But in a socialist system, the government plays favorites. The government controls where the ballots go. The government says which entities stick around, and which will die. What freedom do you have when the government decides your options?
The erosion of society caused by debt
Capitalism is essential for democracy.
Money is essential for functional and efficient society.
We give our money to representatives to maintain our country.
With all these functions staring us in the face, it becomes pretty clear what happens when the government spends money it does not have.
First of all, overspending is government overreach. If they are spending our money, then what justice is there in spending more money than we have given them, and then leaving us with the bill? We are penalized if we don't pay taxes, so perhaps theft or extortion is a better fit.
Overspending leads to inflation, which is just taxation. Inflation weakens the value of the money we already have; in effect it weakens the power of our ballots and gives us less political power relative to the government.
Debt is captivity
One function I have not mentioned yet is that money is a check-and-balance part of the government. If the government never spends more than it has, it is accountable to the people who give it money; the taxpayers, you and I.
However, if the government can spend as much as it wants on our tab, where is the accountability? Where is the check-and-balance in the system? Where is our voice? If the government doesn't need us to pay taxes because it can take what it wants through inflation, then who does the government answer to? Who does the government serve?
For as long as the government is allowed to spend more of our money than we give it, it will have more power than the people. We are in bondage.
When you mark that ballot, where does debt rank in your priorities?
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