# 119
“No surprise here!”
IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray
August 13, 2012
How many times have you said this or heard someone else say it: “If our business operated like the government, we would go broke.” Well, guess what. The government is broke.
The scary part of all this is that I fear the nation lacks the patience to live through any kind of a real adjustment. In this day of instant gratification, everyone wants news in tiny sound bites, tons of information at their fingertips, and rosy outlooks for everything.
Those ideas, though technologically applicable in the first two cases, are not feasible today. A rosy outlook is only possible if you are wearing rose-colored glasses. We are at the end of our financial rope and the end is tightening around the bottom line.
Red is a great color for clothing, but terrible when in ink. Instead of instilling the concept of thrift in grade-school children, we thrill them with video games, computer generated images and cellular phones. Yep! I’ve even seen small children with cell phones.
The combination of no time to use an imagination and constant stimulation does not bode well. Oh, we will have youngsters who are very quick with the mouse click, but not swift on the up tick — when applied to real work and the effort it takes to achieve economic security.
The very idea that 40cents of every dollar is borrowed should strike fear in the hearts of every American. Sadly, it does not. Instead, we plod ahead through a sea of red ink and ignore the fact that everything will implode.
Analysts tell us that Social Security and Medicare cannot sustain themselves under the present system and that by 2030 they will fail. That’s only 18 years, folks. Paul Ryan authored a plan that does not affect anyone over 55 — giving time to change the format for younger workers to be under a newer, more streamlined system.
I’ve watched elections for decades and I’m weary of the scare tactics aimed at the elderly. Many of our seniors depend on Social Security for their retirement income in its entirety. Never mind that the system was designed for “supplemental” income. That’s water under the bridge.
In the 1950s, a retiree received up to seven times what he or she had paid into the system. Those were the glory days of Social Security. Now the ratio has dropped and the numbers of working Americans simply will not support those due to retire in the next decades.
Manufacturers constantly change their designs to attract new buyers. Consumer choices rule in any other realm of our economy. Yet, we are still slipping into 1930s garb when it comes to our retirement.
The concept that there was a “lock box” for the monies paid is ludicrous. It didn’t take long for those in Washington, D.C. to see all that cash as a great prize and they raided it. If that money had been invested, we would be in great shape. Even in light of ups and downs in the stock market, returns would have been very good for older Americans.
If you wouldn’t climb into an 80-year-old automobile or expect an operator at the other end of a wired-to-the-wall black telephone when you need to make a call, then why would you settle for a system that is not only outmoded, but also outdated? Few items in everyday are the “latest” for long. Buy an item today and in three months, a new version will hit the shelves.
I harken back to President Kennedy’s inaugural address in 1961. “Ask not,” he stated, “what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Well, it’s time we followed that suggestion.
We need to do three things and do them right away: (1) Demand that the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid systems be overhauled so that those 55 and under can expect some sort of retirement benefits, (2) Put a time limit on government aid to able-bodied people and expect work as the number one prerequisite for receiving such aid, and (3) Clean house when it comes to drugs and resolve to instill the work ethic, honesty, and incentive in our children so that they can experience pride in accomplishment and look forward to a brighter future.
Face it. If you work for something, you appreciate it more. If you expect nothing, that’s just what you will get. To take a title from an English work, “Great Expectations” is what we need more than anything else. When 9/11 shook America to its core, people came together as one to face danger.
Economic collapse is the danger today. Are we up to facing it? Can we put aside partisan biases and decide to band together as Americans and return our fiscal house to order?
I hope so — for my grandchildren’s sake. We owe the children more than the mess that looms over us now. Think about it.