Charlie's One-year Plan

According to data from the World Bank, the 2010 Gross Domestic Product for the United States of America was 14.5824 trillion dollars. By the end of 2011 the national debt for the U.S.A. will roam in the neighborhood of $16.8 trillion. As you probably know, the GDP represents the value of every product and service generated in the country for that year. So, it is obvious that our debt exceeds the value of everything produced in our country by every company and person for an entire year. Clearly this is not an economically healthy situation unless you are a scofflaw who intends to default. There are numerous plans floating in the air that purport to deal with our abysmal debt situation so I thought….”Why not me?”

Every other plan that has been suggested has some glaring flaws. They may enter a “glide path” to solvency which means, in fact, more debt, increased spending and larger government. Even the golden-boy guru of the GOP, Paul Ryan, introduced a plan that includes all of those weaknesses. Senator Pat Toomey has the sanest approach from among the political class. His proposal would have generated a small surplus by the tenth year of its enactment. The profligate Senate with the uninspired leadership of Harry Reid voted to reject the Toomey measure. That figures. Why endorse a serious attempt to remedy the situation? It would be totally out of character for the “greatest deliberative body of the world,” and for a gaggle of 100 self-serving ego maniacs.

Charlie’ One-Year Plan

As with most plans that have some legitimacy, mine has more than one step. The first is to dedicate the entire national GDP to debt retirement for one year. This plan would include the shared sacrifice that President Obama continually demands because there would be NO resources for food, fuel and other staples available to any citizen, any resident or any visitor in the United States of America. So if we can tough it out for one complete year, we will have nearly enough money to pay off the entire debt. But wait, there’s more.

How do we operate the government if our entire production income is dedicated to debt you might ask? It’s simple. The first thing we do is categorize all government beneficiaries and recipients as “employees.” In one swift blow we have eliminated every entitlement, welfare and subsidy program in the federal portfolio. We then tax our new employees just like the government loves to tax everyone else, and we create a new revenue stream for operating the overgrown glob of government. Of course, we’ll need more money to pay our new “employees.” Isn’t it great that government works so well?

Annexing Canada would be the next logical step in my one-year plan to fiscal solvency. The Canadian GDP of $1.574 trillion would cover most of our essential government services. Our friendly neighbors to the north would have to share in our 52-week sacrifice because if we absorbed their entire national product, no one could eat, drive or participate in normal daily life. Everyone knows that a robust United States is oh so good for Canada’s well being so asking them to share in our mutual misery shouldn’t be too difficult. Obviously, our obligation to the environment and the health of the planet would require that we shut down Canadian oil production. That would have a negative impact on GDP so we must seek another source for generating the income to operate the government.

Invading Mexico may seem extreme at first blush, but it is the most logical piece of our fixit puzzle. There is an amazing symmetry to our invading Mexico because many of their citizens have been invading us for decades. Also by absorbing their GDP of $1.040 trillion, we may recover a portion of the funds that have been systematically sent to Mexican residents by their relatives in the United States. Again, we would prohibit petroleum extraction which would diminish the GDP significantly but the remainder would provide just enough with our previous amounts to fund the government.

Some might argue that my plan would lead to a starving and impoverished country after one year, but I would counter with “all the other plans would yield results that are similar and would take ten years! My plan would also eliminate most of the debt whereas ALL the other proposals increase it.” My plan provides the statist’s dream that the career politicians have been so diligently seeking. Only big government is funded, all energy production is eliminated and the people are totally dependent on government “compassion” and government jobs for their existence.

Satire, sarcasm and cynicism have been tools that I have used in the past, and I may have employed them again. It’s up to you to decide. The nature of your reactions or responses will determine for me the height of your discernment and the depth of your intellect. This one-year plan is as sensible and as realistic as the ones proposed by the career politicians….and the pain wouldn’t last so long.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com or www.littlestuff-minoosha.com

 

Slurping and Sucking

Government inefficiency is so prevalent that it is nearly impossible to get hard numbers about the nation’s economy. Suffice it to say that the federal government’s share of the United States’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is somewhere between 25% and 28%. In other words, for every productive minute, hour, product or service that is generated in our country, government consumes, at a minimum, one fourth of the total. From Fortune 50 companies to corner lemonade stands the productivity of America’s people is being sucked away by an overbearing monstrosity that is growing larger every day. Not included in that obscene number is the amount of productivity and money we must place as individuals and corporations toward complying with Government’s myriad laws, rules and regulations.

Ross Perot became somewhat famous for describing that “giant sucking sound” of American jobs going to Mexico. Today that giant sucking sound is Big Brother and Nanny State draining the efforts, creativity and resources of our most productive citizens. As our energies and talents swirl down the sinkhole of government interference and barriers, our spirits are beaten, and our dreams are trashed by red tape  and bureaucratic resistance. Some might argue that government’s consumption of such a large portion of our work and our products is justified because the state (all government) provides so many benefits that our people require. The difficulty with that particular line of thinking is that the state defines what we need. Just because some legislator or government agency believes that it is a jolly idea if all citizens drove turbo-powered Huffy bicycles, it doesn’t necessarily follow that we want them.

Let’s shift for a moment from the macro view of government’s slurping our resources to a micro consideration. You rise in the morning, and before you have worked a full day or built anything of value, you begin at 25% in the hole. Put another way, you work eight hours for six…or twelve hours or the value of nine. If you produce something for the marketplace, everything will have to be priced twenty-five per cent higher in order for government to collect its cut. A somewhat hidden factor is that as government gobbles up more and more of our productivity, we must work longer and harder just to stay even. Some of our fellow citizens have decided not to participate in the race against government consumption. No, they haven’t gone Galt, but many of them have gone to the government because they claim they cannot continue to keep up with the economic pace required for people to prosper. Thus, those of us who continue to produce now have the added burden of supporting the dropouts. That sucks. If you’ve ever seen a combine harvesting grain, it provides an illustration of the government’s voracious appetite for our productivity….and there are the producers scurrying ahead of the machine, gleaning what little they can before the harvester swallows them.

In modern times the United States has had its most productive and prosperous times when the government’s share of the GDP was limited to 18% to 20%. To achieve those numbers today, government consumption will have to be reduced by 20% to 25% of its present rate of resource absorption. Try to imagine how productive, how energized we would be if government were reduced to 15% of GDP. Even better…how would our economy react to a government that confiscated a mere 10% of all the production, creativity, talent and human energy in the nation? Our economy would take off like a rocket from Cape Canaveral. Government does not produce. It consumes. Government sucks up the labor and products of the producers. Government that over burdens it’s people is immoral. Government that forces productive citizens to support chose who choose not to compete is immoral. Government that attempts to regulate and dominate the lives of its citizens by limiting their individual liberty is immoral. Government that makes outrageous claims on the time, labor and productivity of its citizens is immoral. Government that undermines the property rights of its citizens through lawmaking and rule making is immoral. Any government that seeks to limit the personal freedom, the opportunities, and creative self-expression of its people has surrendered its moral authority. A moral government serves the people. An immoral one controls them.

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com     or   www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com