Americans should know there is no free lunch

Even those who take risks should be ready if their bet is called. To not be ready smacks of expecting a free lunch, one way or the other. To expect a free lunch today at the expense of other Americans, present or in the future, smacks of personal indulgence if done without all votes on the idea. Even fear, as in scaring the seniors as to losing benefits, is not a reason to ruin our Country’s future for all Americans. America is about all of us, to include Seniors. But America is not about Seniors, exclusively. To use such political tactics is immoral and un-American, and it has been done to get votes as in pandering to the Senior vote.

The present financial crisis in the World started in the USA, and seems to also fall in along this principle of risk and expecting a free lunch if the bets are called. What is a shame is that the policies, practices, and politicians of the recent decades have brought this on us in promoting so many egalitarian and socialistic grand intents, with politicians and their staffs taking the risks, and we citizens left holding the bag that promises a free lunch if things don’t work out as planned. What is also a shame is thinking that if we weather this present financial crisis (which we may not), we can expect more in the next few years as the past comes home to roost, to use another old phrase. Voters should understand that all the government guarantees are not unending, and we as local, state, and federal governments can be bled dry unless we allow our taxes to take up to 100% of our earnings. And even that may not be enough. Even Moody, the risk and lending Company, has given the USA a ten year window before they lower our borrowing credit rating. In practical terms, at that time no one will loan us money to balance the budgets. This has happened before, and can happen again.

A practical effect is obvious. If a government, local, state, or federal, cannot collect enough taxes (mostly income or property, though many small cities use fines for auto violations) or borrow enough money to pay coming bills, defaults will begin, and the friction between government benefits and government basic services like police and fire protection will be exacerbated. All this will lead to generational wars within the USA and third world status for the USA. Expect birth rates to go up to be like the traditional social security system, our quality of life and life expectancy to go down, and we become more rural for those who can put up with this. There will be a disproportional impact on urban Americans who will have to gain new skills and lower their standards.

Another probable practical effect is our enemies piling on, as in kicking us when we are down. Diplomacy will be belittled and military means often called for just to defend our New World way of life. What is so predictable is having to fight with what we have, vice fight with what we would like. Mostly it is a money issue, and with taxes being restricted, depending on our votes and politics, and borrowing limited to our home country and "Bond Drives", many Americans will die who did not have to do so in better financial times. The good news is our American mettle will be shown, and we are a pretty good people.

There is an oft quoted phrase which may be an urban legend, but here it is a food for thought:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.

The election cycle and year of 2008 is a time to begin demonstrating by word and vote, that we Americans in the New World are different from our Old World ancestors. Old time status quo politicians need to be sent to scrape heap of USA history. We Americans must by word and deed demonstrate we know there is no free lunch, that we have a better way than the path we have been on for decades, and out votes will show this. To paraphrase another quote, if we don’t like change, then we will really not like being inconsequential.

And change needs to be at all levels, local, state, and federal. The status quo that brought us all this does not have to continue. We can vote to change things before things change us in the New World. We are not yet at the pitch fork level of storming the Bastille, but our present poor leaders, including so many running for offices, are going in that direction. For lack of knowing what to do, they do what they know. Hence, it is time for change, and 2008 is a good of time as any to start. And again, think local, state, and federal in your voting considerations.

Be it a comet, or our votes, our political dinosaurs need to go since they work against our best National Interests. And they will not go easily since the status quo has worked so well in the past... though citizen financed free lunches will go by the wayside as the old time political dinosaurs writhe and fight in their demise.