E-Newsletter No. 110 February 2023
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
Last month, we began a series of newsletters that discuss various values, and how those values affect a person’s vote in an election. Based on exit polling data for the 2022 midterm elections, it appears that a significant majority of younger voters age 18-30 voted in support of President Biden’s desire to buy votes and unilaterally (and unconstitutionally) forgive student loan indebtedness, along with the Democrats’ push for unrestricted government-funded abortion rights, including up until the moment of a baby’s birth.
Our Editorial Board agrees that nearly every person has a desire for both Liberty and Safety. Some of the growing divide in our country stems from the question of which value represents a person’s higher priority. “Collectivists” continue to place a higher value on Safety, even if there is a detrimental effect on (individual) Liberty. One example of this conflict in recent years has been the proliferation of Free Speech Zones and Safe Spaces on college campuses. Should someone’s right to Free Speech be canceled because some college student needs to feel safe from someone else’s viewpoints they do not share? Ben Franklin expressed a fairly “conservative” value in his defense of Liberty in the 1700s.
The Social Security program was instituted in 1935 to provide an economic safety net for people who did not save enough of their own money for their own retirement. This socialist program is now an albatross hanging around the necks of our children and grandchildren. Over the intervening years since 1935, both the demographics and the economics have changed significantly. There are now fewer than 3 workers for every retiree receiving benefits. Life expectancy is now much longer than it was in 1935. Retirees are now receiving increasingly higher multiples of benefits, when compared to their payroll tax withholdings paid into the “system” (scheme) prior to their retirement. Career politicians will not address this problem (aka “the third rail of politics”) because our citizens were lied to about the Social Security “Trust” (which holds no cash) and have become increasingly dependent upon this “safety net.” It is much easier for career politicians to continue to push this burden onto our non-voting children and grandchildren, rather than put forward a solution. (See our foundation’s solution on our website in a Conversation Piece entitled The 2020 Initiative).
Which leads us to this latest bit of updated news. On January 19, 2023, the federal government ran out of cash (again), when it hit the statutory debt limit of $31.385 trillion. Interestingly, the US Debt Clock currently shows debt of $31.575 trillion, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s just a rounding difference. The Treasury department is now (again) using “extraordinary measures” to avoid a technical event of default. (How many times over the past several years have we seen this same “crisis” reoccur?) It is anticipated that the extraordinary measures will run out in the next few months. Stay tuned.
US Debt Clock – – January 1st – $94,130 per citizen / February 1st – $94,290