According to Forbes, Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu is now the world’s richest person. Coming in at an astounding $74 billion, that amount now far exceeds Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s fortunes and Senor Helu is smiling large.
In 2010, the US Federal Government spent $3.591 trillion dollars. That means our country is spending approximately $10 billion a day, ($9.838 billion). Hmmm… If old Carlos were spending his fortune like that he would be broke in just a little over a week.
The leadership in the United States didn’t realize that if they spent more than they took in they would eventually go broke, and in fact did just that. Not to worry they merely began borrowing and printing more money. (That my friends is the common person’s definition of deficit spending!)
Our spending in the United States equals $409.9 million per hour – $6.8 million per minute – $113 thousand per second. If the US borrowed the nearly five billion that it needs every day from the senor, he would be flat broke in just about 15 days.
Yikes! This is the richest man on the planet?
How much do you make in a year?
Oh Mama!
So what are our leaders doing about our borrowing problem? It seems that most of them are mainly posturing for the next election. The Democrats don’t want to cut benefits to anyone, especially their base, and instead demand more taxes on the rich. They want to “invest” more right now and have cuts in spending on down the road when the economy “gets better” and their trillions in “investments” finally kick in.
The Republicans say that corporate taxes in the US are already the highest in the world and are driving jobs overseas. The richest people are the ones who create the jobs and pay the taxes in this country, (47% of workers pay no federal taxes at all). The Republicans want the entrepreneurs to keep their money whereby they will invest some of it in our floundering economy and create some jobs (and I suppose since only a little less than half pay taxes, a little over half will pay some taxes and bring in some badly needed revenue). The Republicans say cut spending instead of raising taxes.
We are heading for a financial train wreck. There is no compromise in sight. It doesn’t take a soothsayer to predict that the train will wreck and both sides will blame the other and ordinary people will suffer.
Perhaps we need a train wreck. I remember how difficult it was to overcome drug and alcohol addiction. I had to reach the point of no return before I did anything about it. When I did, it wasn’t pleasant. At one point I hurt so badly that I literally thought I would die.
I didn’t.
Sometimes we have to reach a point in life where we realize that if we do not change our behavior, we cannot succeed and may even die. Our country is fast approaching its spending withdrawal-or-die deadline. We will need to change some well intentioned programs and tough choices will need to be implemented. We cannot keep spending the way we are spending.
Duhhh… It seems that even a Harvard graduate should be capable of understanding that.
I love wine, but wine doesn’t love me. I also love smoking pot and shooting up meth and heroin, but they don’t love me either. I realized through the help of Jesus Christ that it was only a temporary feeling of wonderful, and even though I loved getting high, in the end it would lead to horror and would have killed me if I didn’t stop.
I pray that people of this country will come to the same conclusion about governmental overspending. Let me predict plain and simple; all these wonderful programs will lead to financial horror and kill this nation if we do not quit borrowing money to keep them going.
Jesus Christ told us not to worry about the things of the world (material things that thieves will steal, moths will eat, and rust will corrode). He said His love for us is sufficient to see us through any calamity including this one and we need to keep looking to Him and go to Him in prayer for strength. But also consider that God gave us a brain and we are to use it. We need to do our parts this year as never before. Join me in working hard to elect those leaders who will make the tough decisions and bring about the changes that we need to quit spending money we do not have in order that we may survive and thrive in gentle peaceful moderation.
Let’s not lose hope in the US coming out of this crisis and thriving again. Hunker down and ride out the storm that is coming and expect some changes; they have to come.
Phil 4:5
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.