I only had four dollars in my wallet but that would be enough to buy some food. But when I went to check-out at the store, I found two of my dollars were missing!
Where could they have gone?
I found out later on the radio: Bush gives $770m to aid Tanzania.
That’s more than $2 for every man, woman and child in America.
OK, so the money wasn’t actually robbed from my wallet, but philosophically, what is the difference? When people hear reports of government spending, I don’t think they make the connection that all of that money is coming from their wallets.
President Bush is strutting his stuff across Africa, protected by his Praetorian Guard, and raining down cash upon the meek leaders who kneel before him. Who let this spendthrift get his hands on this nation’s credit card?
If I want to give money to Tanzania, I can do so myself.
The government has no money of its own. It has to tax citizens, borrow from others, or simply print the money.
If the government was limited to raising funds via taxation, the people would immediately revolt against such reckless spenders. Instead, Congress simply raises the debt window, and the citizenry continue to believe that their nation is “wealthy”.
How long do you think the Iraq war would last if people had any clue how much it was costing them, this hypothetical situation is an eye-opener:
