Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair
THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN
I have been reading about the sunny state of California. It appears things are not all that sunny in “La La Land” these days. In fact, in order for California to deal successfully with the current fiscal dilemma in which it finds itself it would, according to the writer Barrie McKenna, need to free 168,000 prisoners from California jails and close forever 240 college and university campuses.
The real problem, however, for those of us who do not live in “La La Land” is that it might be the preview for what we can expect in the years to come.
We are a nation that expects a great deal from our government.
We are a nation that does not like taxes.
For the government to satisfy our “wants” they must tax us.
I wrestle with how all of this can possibly work out.
Many in America do not understand that we are one of the least taxed countries in the world. We don’t understand it because we don’t study it and no one tells us about it.
It is, however, an unwelcome truth. And it stands in each of our living rooms as a very large elephant.
What will we do about the elephant in the room?
If we slash expenses (programs) the people get angry.
If we raise taxes to fund the programs, the people get angry.
The bottom line is that people are angry. We see it in almost every electoral contest from sea to shining sea.
We have in our country a very layered and very costly federal government. At the same time, we do not provide the tax income to pay for this government. To a lesser extent, but no less critical, we have the same situation in each state.
Very soon California will be asking for a federal bailout. Whatever consideration is given to that will have to occur in the knowledge there could be 49 more bailout requests over the years.
If the federal government provides a bailout the money has to come from either slashing federal programs or raising taxes. If you don’t know what kind of reaction there would be to either of those, re-read the column!
As Robert Preston sang in the musical “The Music Man”, slightly paraphrased:
We got trouble! …
Well, either you're closing your eyes
to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated…
We have to stop spending money.
Or
We have to expect less from our government.
Or
We have to be willing to pay more in taxes.
It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
What will it be?
