Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours
Wordsworth
I find it amazing that America is saddled with $16.0 trillion in debt, and yet lawmakers are haggling over how much to tax productive citizens. It's so insulting and so bass-ackwards, I want to scream. But it's not only a primordial outcry because of a policy that penalizes all the hours, weeks, months, and years of work and sacrifice, but also the drubbing of disrespect that has been part of the campaign. It's worked as the majority of people out there want to tax the not-so-rich, which is like taking the car keys from teetotalers and letting the drunken guys behind the wheel.
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There is a serious temptation to say okay, have it your way and stop fighting. Just sitting back knowing how this turns out because it's played out so many times in so many places around the world. There is a temptation to go off all the cliffs, to watch the competition between the Fed's balance sheet and the food stamp rolls to see which swells beyond physical limits. There is such frustration as to say, take it one step at a time, squirrel your money, and let the cards come tumbling down.
You could have the last laugh at those that took from you more than hard earned money but chunks of your dignity, too. The temptation is there but what about the children? What about the greatness of America? We do not live in a vacuum. The world is beating a path to our riches, our power, our influence. I'm not ready to become Norway. Recently a friend of mine met with bankers from Norway who bragged about their tight income inequality gap and how everyone had access to incomes of fellow countrymen.
The thing they don't talk about is Norway has a lot of oil that allows for its fair nation but I asked what are they contributing to the world? From what I can tell the last Nobel Prize won by a Norwegian was in 1989. I don't think they've developed any great technology, medicines, surgical tools, food technologies, or other advancements that help all mankind. Of the top 20 companies in Norway, only one isn't oil business. It adds a different element to the funding of a welfare state. It can be done as long as there is a ton of oil.
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There are problems like inflation for those not in the oil business where workers earn $57.00 an hour (31% more than German and 65% more than US counterparts). The nation has $650 billion in its sovereign wealth fund. It's a rich nation that makes the notion of a lack of competition work but they do nothing for the rest of the planet. There are no greedy hedge fund managers funding businesses or robber barons creating jobs. The Norway model couldn't work in America where the greatest asset isn't oil resting beneath the sea, but people with unlimited dreams and aspirations.
The world cannot afford America adopting the Norway Model. The food, cures for diseases, and ways to waste time have to keep coming from the minds, gambles, sacrifices of Americans and companies built on legacies of greatness.
But for the moment, the nation is okay with taking a step closer to the welfare state. The nation is fine with greeting success with a punch to the gut. The nation is okay with a government spending while its citizens practice fiscal responsibility. It's not a lost cause but one without a voice. Speaker Boehner has thrown in the towel on taxes and only looking to slow spending. It felt like a deal was close that would give President Obama virtually all he wanted including at least a year to pump debt without limits.
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It's not just our loss it's the world's loss, too.
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