So, America has an enormous national debt. And I don't know of anyone who thinks it's a good thing. I also think most people believe that fixing it lies in the hands of those wacky congressmen - and certainly they exert a direct influence by setting the budget and taking out loans. But both parties know that they survive by handing out money - in token sums to the poor, in defense contracts to the rich, and in countless other ways. And so, as a practical matter, I am highly skeptical of a voluntary congressional deficit reduction.
But, does it really have to be their job? If we are really put out by the national debt, I think we can go ahead and balance it ourselves. Here's how.
1. Make more money. If you make more money, you pay more taxes. Even though rich people can actually get away with paying a relatively low rate - Mitt Romney only paid 15% on his earnings last year - they still pay, in terms of sheer volume of money, a lot more taxes than poorer people do. 15% of what Mitt Romney makes in a year is a great deal more than my entire income over the last ten years. The rich pay for almost everything the federal government does. There's some folks in Congress and the White House who want to boost the budget by taxing the rich more, but while they're arguing about it we could just as easily balance the budget if more of us became rich. Two millionaires paying 15% each is just as much revenue for the nation as one millionaire paying 30%. And, as they say, two millionaires are better than one. If Americans made more money, we'd pay more taxes, and we'd be closer to balancing the budget. As I understand it, that's essentially how Clinton balanced the budget - although some of the money we paid it off with flew away again with the dot-com bust.
2. Pay Social Security taxes, but never collect. The baby boomers are going to retire in a minute here, and they didn't have nearly as many kids as their parents did, meaning that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are about to go incredibly bankrupt. Social Security, for anyone more than a decade or two from retirement, is, as I understand it, essentially a program whereby we temporarily finance the boomer generation's retirement at the expense of our own. As a practical matter, I think we'll need to have our own savings on top of what we pay into the program, and not count on Social Security being anything like secure. And if balancing the budget is your priority, then donating to Social Security and not asking for a return is one way of putting off that particular budget crisis by just a little bit longer.
I am, of course, being a little facetious here. I hope that social security can be gently defused before it blows up in our faces, and I can think of a lot of things I'm glad I spend my time doing that definitely don't make me any money. But it's just struck me recently that politicians like to take a great deal of credit for the economy and the budget, and I'm not sure they really deserve it. I'm starting to like those folks who say things might be better if the government stopped intervening, but I'm also still hesitant to say that government bears the biggest blame for things like our recession. I think we the people are the deciding factor. In terms of economic policy, our most important votes are cast by our actions. When we act to add value to the world, the economy is better off for it. And as long as we have our priorities in line, I think we're better off for it as well.
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