Our Federal Government is out of control. I could end this blog right here and most of the readers would give me a loud Amen. Unfortunately we can't afford to be stoic about the mess in Washington. Our financial lives and our future peace and happiness depend on us -- you and I -- to start working on ending this charade of a functionally operating government which isn't accomplishing much for us, but doing quite nice for themselves. Let me show you what I am talking about.
The salary for a congress person or a senator is $174,000 per year with some ability to earn about 15% on outside ventures that are not in conflict of their duties. The average net worth for a congress person is $1 million and for senators is about $2.3 million. In both chambers the Democrats have a slight lead in net worth. Surprised?
Now you wonder if everyone who serves in either chamber has been successful in their earlier occupations or had inherited money from relatives. Can't tell you, however, I can tell you that all who serve get allowances for expenses. In the house they receive about $950,000 for their staff salaries and a little above $400,000 for their expenses. The senators get the same AND a million or two for other types of expenses yearly.
There seems to be a rather large amount of money being spent that doesn't appear to show much productivity from the workers. If these institutions were on the stock exchange they most likely would earn a very low price/earnings ratio.
And now for the $64 zillion* question (*trying to keep up with the inflation that the Federal Reserve says we don't have): Does this train seem to be running on the right tracks?
Could we cut their hours, work weeks and increase their vacations and actually do better?
The deficit continues to rise, our ability to simply pay the interest on the national debt continues to be in question, and that is without raising interest rates which have to go up sooner or later. Also our future as being the country that has the reserve currency for the rest of the world is slipping from our grasp! With those two situations heading in the wrong direction the entire government still seems content to continue on its merry way until the world leaders come in and take the toys away.
The problem is not confined to Washington. In fact they aren't even the problem, we are. After all what is more pressing than gay rights, making marijuana legal and letting our civil servants tell us that they are taking the 5th amendment? And if that isn't suffocating enough, stop people on the street and ask them to name the Vice President and the head of the Federal Reserve. Ask them how many Senators are in the Senate and the best question of them all: does the government have their own money? If they should happen to say no, ask them where the money comes from.
Are you ready to get interested in what's going on around here or would you rather wait until you’re told to by perhaps someone who doesn’t speak English? It is easy to imagine if you read the history of the world. We could do better if everybody really gave a damn!
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