Morning Dose of "Cynicism"

This should scare the tar out of you... the government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year.

Borrowing implies that it will one day be paid back. With interest. Actually, it has to be paid off. Much of that debt is owned by foreign governments. That debt will have to be repaid. Some of the debt is held by Americans, and the government can easily just ignore that. After all, the government owns us. We work at the pleasure and for the pleasure of the political class. Whatever wealth we produce, they own. In their infinite wisdom they'll allow you to keep just enough of your wealth to encourage you to keep working so that you can keep funding them. It will be the same for your children and your grandchildren. There's a huge multi-trillion debt to be paid... thank goodness the government has the assets to cover that debt. Your children.

Neil Boortz,
May 12, 2009

And from a George Will piece...

In "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville anticipated people being governed by "an immense, tutelary power" determined to take "sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate." It would be a power "absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident and gentle," aiming for our happiness but wanting "to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness." It would, Tocqueville said, provide people security, anticipate their needs, direct their industries and divide their inheritances. It would envelop society in "a network of petty regulations -- complicated, minute and uniform." But softly: "It does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them" until people resemble "a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

By the way, George Will's column, Upside-Down Economy, is a good, if disheartening, read.