Common Sense Wednesday: Money for Nothing and the Perks for Free

or Build, Contribute, Reinvent
or Have Your Cake and Eat It Too (although a Brit said it first)
or The American Way - Fat, Prickish and Broke
or Yet More Evidence One Should Live Within His Means
or Watch This Video and Turn Your Brain on:



Mary Meeker of KCPB narrates a fascinating piece on the economy through the lense of "America, Inc" and on the heels of a heated debate about our country's budgets, spending and debt. It's a bit of a long video, but worth your time. Take you lunch break to view and mill it over if you can.

It provokes many questions, and appears to be non-partisian in pointing blame at all of us - consumers and politicians alike - for being such a greedy, spoiled nation with a muffin top (my words, not Mary's). Pretty picture, huh?

Without even tipping a toe into the partisian debate on spending, let's think about the extremes for no other reason than to answer some obvious questions:

For those that say they don't want to pay higher taxes, that we should purely cut spending because "I don't use the public library, nor am I on welfare, and I don't like war", I ask you -

Do you live in a jungle? Where lion/tiger/bear law reigns? Where you scavenge for your food and answer only to the call of the wild? No. You live in 'merica and you may think that you have a right to retire when your knees go bad.

For those who say that they'd prefer for the rich to pay higher taxes to support programs that help keep Grandma healthier, longer, but think that they, themselves, need to not cut back on the cable bill and pitch in for G-ma's expensive vitamins, I ask -

Would Grandma appreciate that? What if when you get older, your kids shipped you to "the home" to take care of you and give you what you needs to survive, nevermind your quality of life? Isn't that passing the buck?

For those who support higher taxes for everyone in favor of keeping all of the programs the help the poor, downtrodden, sick, elderly, and homeless, I say -

Are the programs for which your tax dollars are paying working? Do you know where your money's going? Is it going towards the program's overhead? Their travel expenses? Is it even going towards providing drug users with clean needles?

For EVERYONE -

What do you think about the budget deal? What changes would you make to the way our country handles its finances? What are you going to do as a citizen to make a difference?