-By Vince Johnson
cc: The Jump$tart Coalition for Financial Literacy for Youth – 919 18th St. NW, 3rd Floor, Washington, DC 20006
The “topic” that no one in America will discuss has to do with what we adults are doing to our children. We are doing it without their approval or consent. Politicians are careful to never mention it. We have devised all kinds of gimmicks to divert their attention. We spend billions developing games and movies of the most violent nature we can conceive. We have loosened discipline in schools in a manner that encourages kids to engage in perverse diversions like drugs, edgy tattoos, body metal, too much teen pregnancy and disgusting fads that focus attention on belly buttons and snuggy jeans worn far too low.
Whether or not this laxity in discipline is by design or the result of overwhelmed school systems does not matter. What matters is that we are all aware of it and we are not sufficiently motivated to do anything about it. We have led the kids to believe that the teachers answer to the principal. That the principal answers to the superintendent. That the superintendent answers to the Board of Education. That the Board of Education answers to the parents. That the parents answer to their children. And therefore, the kids are not required to be answerable to anybody!
And what has happened after we tricked the kids into thinking they are in charge? While they’ve been playing games all around town, we have borrowed ten trillion dollars from their future! Ha, ha, ha! We’ve been fighting wars, pork barreling in the billions and having things we can’t afford on a loan they will have to spend their entire lives making payments on! And we’ve done this while making sure the kids do not learn too much about how making these payments will affect their future.
Just wait until these kids find out what we are doing to them. While they were hiding weed and pills in their baggy pants, we borrowed another $700 billion to bail out some wealthy crooks who managed banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms. Someday these kids will find out that their share of the money we borrowed from them is now at $34,000 per kid and increasing faster than ever. (This comes to $78,000 per couple or $136,000 per family of 4!)
If the kids say “We won’t pay because it is not constitutional to force us to make payments on a loan incurred by our parents” the IRS will take them to court and when found guilty, they will face heavy fines or be sentenced to prison, or both!
It does not stop there! When they turn 18 we will find ways to persuade many of them to enter the armed forces. The DOD Military Recruitment Budget for 2009 is at *$20.5 billion! Additional billions are spent to cloth, feed, train and educate them. Billions more are spent to equip them with high tech military assets, medical care, travel all over the world, R&R, sign up bonuses and more. That’s what we do for our kids who chose to serve their country in the armed forces.
For kids who chose to serve their country in health care, food production, law enforcement, insurance, construction, manufacturing, data processing, engineering, accounting, transportation, foodservice, marketing, journalism, teaching, legal services, agriculture, and on and on . . . . well guess what? After high school they are on their own! For some, the government might consider an educational LOAN repayable with interest! If they qualify.
That’s it folks! Billions and billions for those kids who serve in the military. A possible loan for those kids seeking to further their education. And a guaranteed multi-trillion dollar debt for every kid in America regardless of how they chose to serve their country.
*Verify at:: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080602/mcduffee
This is the last “political” Reality Factor” I plan to do. I have asked several influential individuals and organizations to make a reasonable effort to find out if it is constitutional to borrow trillions from our kids without their consent. These requests were mailed to several Senators, Congressmen, PTA, NEA, DNC, RNC, American Legion, VFW, DAV, BSA, GSA, several state educational associations, several high school principals, several universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton, several high school debate teams, and more. The only response was a letter of encouragement from the American Friends Service Committee founded by the Quakers in 1917.
Hey kids under 18! I cannot find anybody in the USA willing to represent your interests with more than a yawn! That’s the way it is in the real world. You will be paying for all the things we can’t afford as long as you live! You might as well get used to it because you are the only constituency in America that does not have a voice in Congress!
From now on the REALITY FACTOR will be centered on the humorous and intriguing. At 80 years, I’m tired of trying to make sense out of our political system. I have decided to find other trails to explore. I hope they are more enjoyable and less discouraging.
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Vince Johnson welcomes comments. Please send them to,Vince Johnson(vjadtrak@wvi.com)
See Vince in the new book Americans on Politics. Policy, and Pop-Culture.