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PATRIOTS OF AMERICA URGED TO UNITE...... AND SPEND!
BUT IS FRIVOLOUS SPENDING REALLY PATRIOTIC?
A lightning bolt of patriotism has struck our country in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
That's good. The virtue of patriotism has been held in low esteem lately, the term "patriot" assigned scornfully to rednecks, gun freaks and Buchanan brand America-firsters. But in the space of a few shocking moments, we all became America-firsters. Today, few there are who would exempt themselves from the patriot's state of mind defined by Webster: "one who loves and zealously supports one's own country."
Historically, the ultimate patriotism was a willingness to give one's life in defense of country, principles, or our fellow human beings. As we have been so startlingly and tragically reminded recently, that sort of patriotism still exists in America.
But the meaning of patriotism has expanded into new territory in the 21st Century.
Economic territory.
In the aftermath of the unthinkable, unspeakable devastation inflicted upon us, with the first mind-numbing shock and horror giving way to more pragmatic national emotions, Americans are urged from news desks and political pulpits to be "patriotic" and spend, spend, spend.
Buy and we shall save. Buy in the ailing stock market and we will not only save Wall Street, but Main Street, the nation and even the world.
Call me a spoilsport, but to my mind that's not so good. In the first place genuine patriotism is too noble an attribute to be placed in the context of "land of the spending spree and home of no save." By all means, let us purchase our essentials and bolster the stock market if we can afford it. But as a people we have been wallowing for years in self-indulgent toys and frills and gambling away hundreds of billions a year in casinos, lotteries and the stock market, risking our savings, our homes and our childrens' future. It's no secret that debt accumulation by the government, business and individuals has soared into space over the last decade of rampant consumerism. The United States has the lowest savings rate in the industrialized world. In 2000 it sank into minus territory for the first time in history. Still, we continued to borrow and buy. Britisher Sir Joseph Stamp might have been talking about us when he wrote: "But if you wish to remain the slaves of banks and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits (out of thin air)."
Secondly, has it occured to anyone, that now, with uncertainty about the future at its height, is the very time our political and cultural spokespeople should be resurrecting the old-fashioned notion of frugality and individual responsibility? Patriotism begins not at the mall or Wall Street, but with families guarding their liberties and assuming individual responsibility. After all, about 80 percent of us don't have a heck of a lot of extra cash. Unbelievable as it may seem to the gilded lillies who dominate the media and political spotlight, most of us might actually need our moderate or meager resources to feed our families or pay the power bill. Two million Americans were laid off from the nation's largest companies this year prior to the attack. Tens of thousands more have been laid off since. More than 50 million barely earn enough in an increasingly retail and service-oriented economy to keep their heads above water.
To entreat people to spend even more under shaky economic conditions demonstrates a callous disregard for the individual economic health of the majority of Americans. Spending and indebting ourselves into prosperity may have worked for awhile, but the fragility of such a paper and air economic system has come home to us in spades now with the heartbreaking crash of a few airplanes and buildings.
What we need now is to rebuild the solid foundation that is only possible through the efforts of multitudes of productive and responsible Americans. And former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge seemed to know a lot more about the best way to unleash this energy and stimulate the economy than do any of our leaders today.
First, set an example.
Included in Coolidge's inaugural speech were words we will never hear today, but should:
"I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much more the abundant. Economy is idealism (patriotism?) in its most practical form."
Clearly our bloated government has not been setting a good example.
The most recent GAO analysis revealed that the federal government loses an annual $220 billion to waste, fraud and abuse... more than the entire federal budget only a few decades ago!
For perspective, consider that to count to one million would take a person 23 days counting 24 hours a day. A billion is a thousand million, so to count to a billion would take a person counting non-stop for 23,000 days!
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld recently told the media that the cost of building an adequate missile defense system would be approximately $40 billion. Just prior to September 11 well-funded minions of the environmental movement had just about persuaded Congress to pass into law a pork-laden $40 billion bill called the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), basically a land grab enablement law giving government even more authority to wrest desirable property from private owners for some perceived "environmental" good. Let the government "make do" with what it has so incompetently managed already, which is a third of America.
Scrapping the unconstitutional CARA abomination in favor of better security (which is, after all, the primary responsibility of government) makes patriotic sense to me. How disgraceful that we were so busy 'protecting' a host of million-dollar wolves and various and sundry bugs, birds and fish that we let 6,000 human beings be killed by a few guys with knives. But a really patriotic Uncle Sam would go a lot further than exchanging one government expenditure for another. He would mend his wasteful ways and remember that "the men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of government."
He could start adopting the suggestions of James Ostrowski of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, who has some really great ideas on ways to slow the giant sucking sound of tax dollars away from the private sector economy, which most people seem to have forgotten is the only source of lasting wealth for a nation.
- Eliminate the Dept. of Agriculture. It grows no crops and costs $19 billion a year.
- Dump the Dept. of Education. It has failed miserably and costs $34 billion
- Trash Health and Human Services. It costs $54 billion and its service is abominable.
- HUD is crud, the inventor of ³the projects,² destroyer of cities, costs $37 billion.
- Dept. of Labor, does no labor and costs $12 billion.
- Dept. of Transportation, capitol of pork to the tune of $48 billion.
- Dept. of Interior, independent nation larger than France and costs $9 billion.
- Corps of Engineers causes floods and costs $4 billion.
- Dept. of Energy creates no energy and costs $17 billion.
- Dept. of Commerce? Pooh, let private commerce do its own bleating and save $6 billion.
- EPA? With a budget of only $7 billion (remember, that's 7,000 times a million) it has worked untiringly to inflict possibly irreparable damage on the livelihoods, cultures and communities of the producers of America.
The list could be much longer, but you get the idea. Now is a turning point in American history, a time of sacrifice, commitment and unity. The former government employees could enter the private sector and learn to become producers instead of consumers.
Certainly there could be no greater impetus to unity than a government sharing our pain today for a freer, stronger and more "abundant" tomorrow.
Now that's real patriotism.
Payson.cc © 2001 Carrol Cox
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