Greece experienced it. Guatemala and the United States are experiencing it. When governments run up millions in debt, ballooning in money and power, the average citizen doesn’t object. Why should they? Who is stupid enough to turn down free money? But later, when the debts needed to be repaid, the attitude of the citizenry was and is: “I/we didn’t choose to accumulate all that debt. Not my fault. I don’t own it. Why should I be required to repay it?”
The United States is somewhere between 26 and 40 trillion dollars in debt – no one really knows. But you can take this to the bank – Americans are not going to own or choose to pay back one cent of that massive debt. Any legislator who even suggests that we tighten our belts, balance our budget*, and (God forbid) pay our debts – can kiss his/her political career good bye.
*NOTE: Balancing our budget, or a balanced budget, is a term we toss around without necessarily knowing what it means. A balanced budget simply means that if we take in some amount of money (in taxes, income, interest on investments, etc.), that we limit our ourflow (spending) to the amount we take in So even in the situation where we are still in debt, a first step is to adopt a balanced budget so at least we stop going FURTHER in debt. Make sense?
We CAN get a handle on our debt and return to being fiscally responsible, which means paying our bills, living within our means, reducing our debt to healthy levels. The first step is to create and live by a budget that is balanced – that is, we don’t spend more than we take in. Currently we spend a lot more than we take in, and if you’d like to see our national debt increasing in real time, go to the U.S. Government’s Debt Clock and watch the national debt increasing before your very eyes. Here’s how to get there: Google it, or go to https://www.usdebtclock.org/.
There is a tool to dramatically increase U.S. productivity and reduce our debt burden – that tool is called TQM (Total Quality Management). TQM has been proven to systematically and continually increase productivity in companies like Toyota Corporation. As corporations improve productivity, their profit margin widens. As profits increase, more employees are needed to handle the added volume. As profits increase, salaries increase. Companies with more profits = more tax-paying employees. So the company benefits; the employees benefit; and a reasonable share of that increased benefit can be used to bring our economic state to a healthy, balanced level.
The ancient Roman Empire lasted 1000 years before rotting from the inside. Weakened, they were eventually defeated. The United States has lasted only 235 years and is suffering the same fate. But the really sad, devastating and inexcusable crime we have perpetrated on our own young, our own children, on generations to follow, is to saddle them with a debt burden that they will NEVER be able to “fix.” And yes, when I say we, I am referring to … you and me (not someone else, some politician, someone to blame because you and I don’t have the integrity and courage to do the right thing).
Even with this slowing growth in the fourth quarter, upward revisions for previous quarters leave the level of economic activity slightly higher than we had been monitoring. In fact, Canada’s economy remains near full capacity. Let me list some of the indicators that support this view: high industrial capacity utilization; near record-high labour force participation rates; a record-high employment-to-population ratio; corporate profits at their highest level since early 2001; and, as I said a few moments ago, above-target trend inflation.