The "National Debt" is now in the neighborhood of $30 Trillion. That means Congress has borrowed $30 Trillion from various sources to pay for things it couldn't afford.
Not only that, but Congress has made promises: "Vote for me, and I'll give you free stuff in the future!" Congress did not have the money to pay for these benefits. It has no reasonable hope of finding a source to pay for all the things to which
Americans now believe they are "entitled."
The amount of free stuff that Congress has promised to voters but cannot pay for is in the neighborhood of $222 Trillion.
This has to be a sign of some kind of mental illness.
That figure of $222 Trillion is called "unfunded liabilities." This includes "entitlements" like Social Security and Medicare.
Congress wants to spend even more money it doesn't have, and it calls these expenditures "investments." "We're investing in America's future!"
Obama's Investment Advice
Should you loan money to a mentally ill person? If you do, should you expect strong men to shake down your neighbor for the money to pay you back?
Lenders to the U.S. not only expect to get their money back, but they expect taxpayers to pay them interest, year after year. The interest payments could foreseeably rise to $900 Billion per year.
Should the government stop paying all that interest and default on its loans? Would that save taxpayers a lot of money? Would defaulting on the debt help our economy?
If I loan money to the Mafia, should you be threatened with violence and compelled to give money to the Mafia so it can make interest payments to me?
If the Mafia loans money to you, are you under a moral or legal obligation to pay the Mafia back? (Yeah, you might get beat up if you don't.)
- The right to command: Does the Mafia have it?
- The duty to obey: Do you have it?
This is the problem of "political authority."
The Problem of Political Authority by Michael Huemer
Consider these articles from the Mises Institute:
"We first have to rid ourselves of the fallacious mindset that conflates public and private, and that treats government debt as if it were a productive contract between two legitimate property owners."
-- Murray N. Rothbard
“Private Sector”
|
“Public Sector”
|
Non-“Government” Sector |
“Government” Sector |
Competitive Sector |
Monopoly Sector |
Persuasive Sector |
Coercive Sector |
Peaceful Sector |
Violent Sector |
Productive Sector |
Parasite Sector |
Servant Sector |
Archist Sector |
"Economic Man" |
"Political Man" |