The most important story Americans will ignore today
Wednesday, 30 May 2007 | 270 readers so far
And next year. And the year after that. We’re all so caught up in the "what can government do for me/what SHOULD government do for me" fallacy that we are bankrupting ourselves.
The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year — far more than the official $248 billion deficit — when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows.The loss reflects a continued deterioration in the finances of Social Security and government retirement programs for civil servants and military personnel. The loss — equal to $11,434 per household — is more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006.
Congress is allowed to use non-standard accounting practices that would send any CFO of a publicly traded company to jail. Why? The behavior is just as criminal. The only difference is that the company is the United States of America and the shareholders are you and I.
1 May 30th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
datarat says:
As if that weren’t bad enough, most corporations use accounting practices that would get the average individual locked away for life.
2 May 30th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Trevor says:
Who learned from who? Are the corporations taking their cue from the Congress or vice versa?
3 May 31st, 2007 at 7:35 am
Gringo_Malo says:
Well, as you say, “We’re all so caught up in the ‘what can government do for me/what SHOULD government do for me’ fallacy that we are bankrupting ourselves.” By all, I assume you mean most of us. Having paid a six figure tax bill last year (paid off rural property with a 401(k) withdrawal), I’m only paying for what the government does for other people. The able-bodied welfare recipient I’m supporting bought a Cadillac Escalade last year.
P.J. O’Rourke begins his book Parliament of Whores with a quotation from some 18th century Frenchman to the effect that a democracy can endure only until a majority of its citizens discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. That’s why America was intended to be a republic, in which only taxpayers were enfranchised. Unfortunately, there’s no democratic solution to the problem of democracy.
Of course, nations don’t file bankruptcy as individuals do. Should the foreigners who sell us our petroleum and manufactured goods recognize the worthlessness of our Monopoly money, we’ll suffer widespread starvation and anarchic violence. I expect this to happen shortly after the government begins monetizing the costs of Medicare and Social Security for the Baby Boomers.