The Wrongologist

In 200 years of running our government, we accumulated about $1 trillion of federal debt. Now, almost 25 years later, the debt is at nearly $15 trillion, mostly accumulated during 20 years of Republican Administrations: Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2. During the Bush 2 period, which started with a surplus, Mr. Greenspan advised Congress that budget surpluses and paying down the debt too quickly could be bad. Inflation, you know.

So Congress passed the Bush tax cuts, 9/11 happened, followed by the Afghan and Iraq wars. The surplus was quickly replaced by deficits and the hope of eliminating the federal debt went down the drain.

So, what did we get for that additional $13 trillion of deficit spending?

• Best education system in the world?   No!
• Best infrastructure in the world?    No!
• Best health care system in the world?    No!

We got 10 years of war. We got transfers of vast wealth to a few. We got a bubble that collapsed and led to this great depression recession, along with erosion of American prestige and influence throughout the world.

So What’s Wrong?  Now we hear that there will be no money for our cops, our firefighters, our nurses, our teachers. Next we will hear that our Social Security checks are smaller and Medicare will cover less than it does today. And today, you saw your 401k fall on the floor again.

Our politicians consider themselves blameless, they say that it’s the other side that is wrong and at fault. It is a time of fixed ideologies, one in which few are willing to move outside their little bubble and act in a thoughtful way about a collective future.

Democracies cannot run this way. But, we are not alone in this. Consider what is going on in Britain: Violence by the young poor. But they are not poor in their knowledge of technology:

“Youths used text messages, instant messaging on BlackBerry phones and social media platforms such as Twitter to coordinate attacks and stay ahead of the police.”

This is frightening. No matter where we live or how secure we may feel, we’re all just a few tweets away from a socially networked wave of violence and destruction–and if the looters or Wall Street don’t destroy your livelihood, then the crumbling economy will.

As Dean Vernon Wormer said to Flounder in “Animal House”:  “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

Yet, we are doing just that, and its just so wrong.