Are u Greece?

Is there all that much difference between your finances and that of a country? Aside from the ability to print money and raise taxes, not much.  If you conducted your finances like Greece, you would be in the same mess.

Spending money you don’t have, making financial commitments you can’t afford and your income based on rents (taxes) that are not paid.  Isn’t it a government’s responsibility to be well, responsible? Shouldn’t a country’s debt and social commitments consider the possibility of economic downturns or crisis? 

Shouldn’t citizens who want “free” social services be willing to pay taxes to support them?  You as an individual are told to save for the future, to avoid debt with high interest rates and to have an emergency fund. If you ignore this advice, you risk financial meltdown when things go wrong. That’s a fact of life. A fact many seniors now realize as do Anericans who lost their jobs and homes during the recession. A fact students who amassed large loans for a college degree that has little or no value in the workplace now realize and as they default on loans in the billions of dollars you will pay for. 

While countries have more flexibility to manipulate their finances, in the final analysis as Greece shows,  there really is no difference between individuals and countries. No matter what happens the people of Greece will pay a heavy price because they bought into socialist promises without asking tough questions … or what it would cost them. 

Why does this matter? It matters because left leaning politicians in America are seeking votes selling you the idea that somehow government can give you free stuff without consequences or consideration of affordability.  

Even higher taxes on wealthy Americans, the people we are encouraged to despise, can’t pay for all the promises being made.  Support Clinton or even Sanders if you like, but for Pete’s sake (and yours), don’t just swallow their cool-aid without asking what’s in it.  

Ask exactly how their promises will be paid for now and in the years ahead.  Elizabeth Warren complains that student loans should not be a profit center for government and that interest rates should be lower or non-existent. That may not be a bad idea if there was no federal deficit and we were gradually lowering the national debt, but it’s hardly responsible while we spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year we don’t have. 

Nothing government provides is free, nothing that is promised can be fully paid for by someone else alone. Even if you buy into the Krugman theory that austerity is bad during economic crisis, that doesn’t mean huge deficit spending and debt can be sustained permanently without consequences. 

America has been riding the crest for centuries; living high on the hog with little challenge. Those days are gone. We better look over our shoulder toward Asia, we better get our house in order, we better accept and adjust to the changing global economy and balance of power. 

We better ask politicians the tough questions today before we can’t afford our Moussaka.