#109 – Dick Bernard: $1,420,000,000,000
The Saturday, October 17, 2009, Minneapolis Star Tribune had a front page headline: “Deficit Surges to New Record“. The subhead helpfully fleshed out the number: “2009’s deficit soared to $1.42 trillion – more than three times the most red ink ever amassed in a single year.” In the early part of the article – the part people read – it emphasized that this was the federal budget deficit, and it included a number I’ll comment on a bit later.
Indeed, $1.42 trillion – $1,420,000,000,000 – is a lot of red ink.
It’s also the mother’s milk of unfettered Capitalism…. Somebody, after all, got all that loose change.
And there are those inconvenient truths, like the fact that our cost of “War on a Word” since 2001 will exceed $1 trillion by the end of this fiscal year #mce_temp_url# – and much of that is off-budget and relies on borrowed money from places like China. Another excellent resource: #mce_temp_url#. War is an unproductive use of increasingly scarce resources.
The article got me to thinking back to when my parents bought their first house. It was in 1947. I was seven years old; my parents were 39 and 36 respectively. We were living out in Sykeston ND. There were already four of us kids, and #5 was to come the following year.
I was old enough to have vivid memories of this momentous purchase.
Bernard's North House, 1947
My Dad was a school teacher, and Mom was stay at home, and the first few years they rented. But by 1947 it seemed like they had a relatively stable work situation, and the family size was such that they needed a house.
They bought a deserted farm house that had doubled for a grain bin somewhere out in the countryside, and moved it to the north end of tiny Sykeston, ND, perching it on a foundation over a minimal basement with dirt walls. If memory serves, their investment was $700 total.
It was the sweat equity that brought the mouse-infested place back to life. If you look closely at the photo above, you can see a very tired looking man sitting on the stoop of the then-front door. That would be my Dad. Basically behind and to the right of the photographer (my mother?) would be the outhouse…no sewer or running water in those years: they had to go down to the town pump for the water supply. No bathroom. Minimal baths…. No garage for the one already old car.
Life went on, and expectations increased for all Americans.
Time went on and someone came up with the idea that people could borrow money and get stuff that they wanted. Business thought this was a fine idea. Debt is good. It helps to promote consumption, and consumption is good. As business took over government, slow but sure, government debt was okay too. Who better to own than the government, especially when you could blame the politicians?
So, we sit here with this huge federal debt. The paper helpfully pointed out that it amounts to “more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.”
A lot of money, yes.
But comparing it against the massive consumer debt held by persons with mortgages, car loans, etc., etc., etc., etc. it’s really pretty small change.
The calculation for the big business types now has to be: how far can they leverage this debt until we all go busted. Sooner or later the debt becomes intolerable, even for those with a lust for profit. The peasants need to be able to pay the bills. If they can’t, the bubble bursts.
As noted, there are many reasons for that big federal deficit.
A bit of prudence, like my parents had to exercise back in the 1940s, would go a long way today.
Don’t expect it from the money changers in the temple that is Wall Street.
My husband and I have been debt-free since we paid off our house loan in 1993. We’ve enjoyed a very stable, healthy income, used that money to raise our family and have a modest, comfortable life-style, and been grateful, daily for our good fortune. We know that we’ve been very lucky and consider giving to the causes of social justice to be the highest use of our disposable income.
My parents values rubbed off on me, and in turn, my husband. The jury is still out on our impact on our children! We hope to be self-supporting and debt-free until death, but we are recipients of Social Security and Medicare.
Debt: Debt is playing a huge role in both our international affairs and here at home. We have generated tremendous national debt in other countries, sometimes dishonestly, so as to increase their dependency on the US as a way of filtering US foreign aid dollars right back to huge US corporations. It’s an orchestrated and deceitful method of subsidizing these companies. In fact, the infamous “coalition of the willing” is seemingly made up largely of such beholden countries.
And we have an internal debt problem. At the same time that we have made bankruptcy filing more difficult, we have escalated the number and types of ways that individuals can increase their debt. We have charge cards with exaggerated debt ceilings, huge interest rates, and a person can hold many cards. Then we have no-down-payment home purchases where all you’re buying is debt – not a home. Added to this we have all sorts of efforts to encourage extension mortgages. So guess what has happened? Families in increasing numbers have charged themselves to the max and have now gone to their last possible place to get cash — extended mortgages. Foreclosures are on the sharp increase.
But now this house of cards has finally collapsed. It was inevitable, and unfortunately it was also necessary. The charade must end.
All of this has further expanded the gap between the haves (the “economic royalists” if you will) and have-nots on every conceivable level. Anyone who doesn’t think we have become a class society, both here and abroad, simply isn’t paying attention. Where are the religious folks on this one – the return of usury in every corner of our existence?