Teen Learns Economics from Washington

Herk and Tildy's son, Teen, getting his financial house in order:

Hmmm. Last week I spent $5. I owe Dad 14, but he'll lend me more.
Next week I'll spend the same, except I'm adding 2 for jelly beans and 2
for a new app. Total $9.

Dad says okay; I'll loan you 2 more. But you'll have to cut your spending.

Okay, I say, No problem. I can live without the jelly beans. I'll cut 2.
(I'll spend 7, and look! I cut $2. (9 - 2 = 7).

What? You're saying I spent less last week; how is that a cut?
Shut up, already.

Congress Performs Its Duties. Not.

I made the mistake Friday of turning the TV to a news channel. Such posturing; such braying; such failure on the part of the duly ordained "leaders" to lead.

I engage in sarcasm on occasion, always, I hope, tinged with humor. I sink into cynicism from time to time, for I am, after all, a part of the human race. How could I be surrounded with such creatures and yet fail to doubt their ability to reason their way out of a wet paper sack (bag, poke, choose your nomenclature). Yet my point is that I am a positive person. Oh, you don't see that? Well, I am particularly positive at this moment. I am positive that we lack true leadership. I know that we selected these clowns to represent us and to conduct our business. We are culpable. I am braying. Call me an ass, but be aware that I am no more an ass than are the asses about whom I am braying.

Sincerely,
Bob Warr

This was written over three months ago. I simply had no place to put it until now. If things have changed since then, it is only for the worse.

"If you're not part

of the solution, you are part of the problem." This mantra springs to mind and I apply it to myself as I sit here and snipe at the congress creatures in Washington. And yes, of course, I am part of the problem. I am one of the people to whom the government owes money. Of course, I loaned it to them when it appeared that they were a creditable, reliable and honest borrower. Should I have anticipated that they would try to live in perpetuity on borrowed money, ultimately paying me back with money borrowed elsewhere, or defaulting? Or is this not the definition of a Ponzi scheme, for which countless people are imprisoned?

I am reminded of Jerry Clower's illustration in which he likened government programs for the "benefit" of the people to a transfusion in which the donor and the recipient are the same. "They draw blood out of one arm, and run it back in in the other arm, and spill about half of it in the process."

Looks like a rough ride ahead.

Sadly, True

535 congress creatures haven't enough collective wisdom to pound sand in a rat hole.

But you can bet their paychecks will be the last to be withheld if we go into free fall.