GOVERNMENT

Government is an organization put together to take away your money and use it for your good. That's not all bad. Some functions are better done by government than any other way.

When politicians run for office in our government, they bribe you to vote for them by promising different ways to spend the your money. Remember, government gives you nothing except what it can buy with your money.

Usually, politicians make so many promises that they give you more than it can afford with your money, so it has to either take more money from you or take a loan on future money that it will take from you. As a result, you not only have to give government more and more of your money, you owe the government money way into the future.

Are you getting more out of government than you are giving to it? It's impossible to tell. What you can tell is that no one wants to take less than they are getting now. Politicians who wouldn't blink about spending more of your money wouldn't dare take away something that you are already getting with your money. The following is an example of what could happen.

In England, young people are rioting because the government wants to raise the cost of going to state colleges. Not long ago, tuition was "free" to state schools in Great Britain. Some five years ago they started charging about $5 thousand a year. Now the government, trying to make ends meet, wants to raise the tuition to about $10 thousand a year. These rioters evidently don't realize that "free" wasn't free at all. People were paying the cost of their education in taxes. The cost of education keeps rising. Their government is now to the point that it can either raise taxes or reduce benefits. Because of the recession, raising taxes would probably deepen the recession. To cover the additional costs, do you make everyone pay more through taxation or charge the actual users? They decided to charge the users and the users don't like it.

I'm not sure American politicians have what it takes to reduce what some people already get. It only hurts if it effects you. Reduce social security and those relying on it would scream. Reduce Medicare and those relying on it would scream. Reduce aid to the poor and those relying on it would scream. Reduce any benefit to anyone and they will scream. I doubt that we will start charging the users more. The Feds are totally into the redistribution of wealth. When all is said and done, our politicians will probably find the same answer that politicians have found in the past. Raise taxes. Take away the people's money before they have it in their hands. Don't let them do it. We will see a lot of posturing about reducing spending but I doubt they have the guts or votes to get much of that done. There will be some so that faces can be saved. Deep cuts in any social benefits are a dream, I fear.
:-)