Decisions, decisions...

What if this was your family situation?

Total annual family income last year: $21,700
Amount spent last year: $38,200
New debt on credit cards and such: $16,500
Total Credit Card debt from doing this same thing for YEARS: $142,710
Amount you're willing to cut annually to make some "progress": $385.00


Is it possible that you are so INSANE as to think that cutting a paltry $385 over a YEAR ($32/month) will make any difference AT ALL? Don't you know that you would have to cut $16,500 ($1,375/month) to just break even?

Do you think that you are ENTITLED to a certain quality-of-life just because someone has made it possible for you to spend more than you earn?

You are racking up debt that you can never pay.

Well, you're in luck because the banks and credit-card companies can't force your kids to pay them, although they can, and will, go after anything you leave behind, like your house, cars, and other valuables. Which means that you are leaving behind a prolonged legal battle and paperwork nightmares for your kids. That's nice.

But what if it were legal for the banks to force your children to take over payments when you die? Would you admit to yourselves that you are living better than you should and your kids will just have to work harder when they grow up to pay for it? Or would you come up with all sorts of crazy accounting gimmicks to justify it so you you don't have to feel bad?

Well, take those numbers above and add EIGHT ZERO'S to them and that is what we've done as a nation!

US annual tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal Budget: $3,820,000,000,000
Deficit: $1,650,000,000,000
National Debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Proposed budget cuts that congress was arguing about recently: $38,500,000,000

The bottom line: The government is spending WAY TOO MUCH! This means there will have to be much more cuts than what is being talked about. Millions of government workers will be unemployed and their programs cut. Programs like IRS, DMV, thousands of generic social spending programs (CPS,AFDC,NPR,NEA, etc.), County Code Enforcement, OSHA, at least half of the Cops and the laws they enforce, BATF, DEA, on and on. Those former employees will be forced into the labor market where they will stagnate, like the rest of us, until society collapses and they either starve or will be forced to sustain themselves by growing their own food, and providing services to their fellow man. Services that we actually want and need and will trade our goods and services for. But most of them, and the people that relied on them will starve and kill each other trying to survive. This is why we are moving to Oregon. I don't want to be anywhere NEAR a big city when that happens.

These are individual luxuries we buy and go into debt for when we see good times ahead and our income increasing and home values going up:

• Unlimited cable TV in every room
• Landscapers to mow our lawns
• RV's/Boats/Jet skis/etc
• Vacation homes/Timeshares
• Smart phones for everyone
• Pools and Jacuzzi and elaborate backyard BBQ hangouts

This is a short list of the things you will need to cut during bad economic times.

Societal luxuries we go into debt for when we think times are good:

• More and more cops to police more and more laws to protect us from ourselves (ticket for not wearing a seatbelt?)
• Child Protective Services to police everyones' parenting so we don't have to do it ourselves
• Welfare to take care of the poor so we don't have to do it ourselves
• Social Security to give money to our parents so we don't have to do it ourselves
• Medicare/Medicaid to care for the elderly so we don't have to do it ourselves
• DEA to make sure no-one is hurting themselves with drugs and mind-altering substances
• A giant military to impose our values on everyone else in the world
• County Code Enforcement officials to ensure that you aren't planting carrots in your front yard
• Programs to give money to artists so the can continue to make disgusting art without having to worry about whether or not anyone will want to buy it.
• Unions that supposedly look out for the working people but really just look out for themselves
• Census Bureau Superbowl ads?
• Paying farmers to NOT GROW ANYTHING
• Building extra bridges for car-pool only lanes
• Grants for Scientific Research
• Golden retirements for public employees

That is a VERY SHORT list, but cuts will HAVE TO BE MADE. We are living beyond our means. We can't spend money we don't have to protect ourselves from bad things that will happen anyway. The cowardly act of trying to pay someone else to protect you makes you weak spiritually and may be what caused you to doom your own children to slavery to pay off your debts. And this is not something that MIGHT happen in the future; it's happening NOW! Before I was layed-off, the government was taking $370 per month out of my paycheck for SS and Medicare. That money is not being invested for my future retirement... it is being given directly to retired people right now because the government spent the money it was supposed to save for them. That is forcing one person to serve the needs of another. In ANY dictionary that is called SLAVERY. It is here. It is now. And judging by the petty bickering that had congress arguing over a measly $38 billion in cuts, it is only going to get worse.