Rome and Home
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
~Cicero - 55 BC
What is it that they say about those who forget (or ignore) history?
Although this quote may not be historical. There is a good chance it is made out of whole cloth, or embellished. It does sound rather modern. It is possible that the actual quote is as follows:
The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.
And still, that may be utterly made up. But the idea is sound, that a government plunging into debt so its people may live an idle life will undoubetdly lead to a cultural collapse.
Just look at Rome.
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7 comments:
What is, "are bound to repeat it?"
I'll take Gladiators for 400, please, Alex.
we have been repeating this history since George Washington was our President. Further, since 1940 the debt has only dropped from one year to the next 5 times and since 1957 the debt has climbed every year.
Debt has always been a problem. Especially for the individual. But expanding the debt so people may live in idleness is especially reckless.
As soon as people start expecting others to provide for them, everything slides downhill rather quickly.
do you have actual data that shows how there is a direct relation to expanding debt and entitlements?
Interest on Debt, Defense and Health and Human Services are the 3 largest SPENDERS by orders of magnitude.
Only about 35-40% of the 2009 FY 2009 HHS budget is related to entitlements not related to Medicare. ANd you may consider Medicare and entitlement, but my retired parents would likely be in the poor house without it and they have a good government pension, 2 working farms, own their house and cars outright and have significant savings.
So what other entitlements are we speaking of? Are we saying that the @300 billion a year spent on HHS entitlements, if zeroed out, would lessen our debt burden enough? It would lessen it, but not by much, not enough.
Of course when you frame the choice as "Putting my PARENTS in the poor house, or spending a paltry sum to support them," the choice seems pretty easy. Not only that but outright cruel and heartless to actually put your parents in the poor house in exchange for nominal fiscal health.
However we have a larger problem facing us. Everyone's parents will soon be retiring, and we don't have the tax base to keep them all out of the poor house, pay their medical bills, AND pay the medical bills of every other human being living in the United States.
The bill is starting to come due, and just as it will be hitting us, the current political class wants to stack a new hugely expansive addition to it. I'm scared of the consequences.
Going back to StupidBike's original comment, it's interesting to note that 1957 (that pivotal year that debt began unceasingly climbing) is almost exacatly a generation after the New Deal was rolled out.
I'm just sayin'.
My original point is that what we have happening right now is a massive entitlement mindset where people coming into adulthood are believing that a home, a car, high speed internet, health care, food, entertainment and everything else they could ever want ought to be given them. Take it from whomever has it, and give it to me. That mindset alone will destroy the culture and economy of the US.
If your parents are anything like my grandparents and parents then I am certain that they never felt that way about anything and that they worked hard for what they achieved in life. And from what I know of you, its clear they passed that down the line.
Just think how hard you have to train to beat me these days ;)
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