Swickard: Generations acting like suckers

© 2015 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.  "It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money." W. C. Fields
             I was smacked around a bit for saying last week in my column that young people are not acting smart about their future. The fact is that their future finances are being spent now by politicians therefore young Americans, some of whom are not even born yet, are going to be left holding an empty financial future.
            When we are talking about young people who are of voting age this is even more egregious. Those young people could put a stop to the theft if they all worked together. Alas, not only are they not putting a stop to their future being stolen, they are actively handing to the thieves their valuables.
            We are all responsible for our actions so mostly I protest for the young people not of age to vote or not even born yet. They are being pilfered without any way to resist. The mainstream media pushes the scam of politicians spending the future money as if it was a responsible action. In a word it is the national debt which must be paid back at some point yet there are no plans currently to do so.
            How did we get to this place? The clever but morally corrupt people in our society are taking advantage of the citizens in our society who are not paying attention to the effect of printing money and borrowing money without any intention to pay that money back. Sadly even though clever politicians have stolen the young people's future financially most young people would vote for them again.
            There is a term, "Grifter" which is used for someone who swindles using deception. That's our politicians. We refer to them as a con artist or a swindler or a scammer. In the future young citizens will live lesser lives because of what is stolen today.
            At the coffee shop the question was asked: is this because of a collapse in public education? I do not think this is connected to education. Rather it is willful ignorance. Americans ignore data all the time to their detriment. Let me give you an example: a fantasy football betting operation is proudly touting that they will pay out two billion dollars this year. Wow, two billion dollars will be paid to the winners.
            When many Americans hear that statistic they want some of that money. They do not stop to ask a pertinent question: where does the fantasy football betting company get the two billion dollars to pay winners?
            The most common answer was that they have no idea where the money to pay out two billion dollars comes from. Well burro, the answer is it comes from those people who play the game and lose. In fact, collectively in the betting pool it is not two billion dollars lost it is more since betting operations make a profit.
            Likewise Las Vegas, Nevada was built with people who came and left their money. Some people can see this fact while others either cannot or will not. These same people are also unable to realize if the government gives something to one citizen, they must take those resources away from another citizen.
            And there is the Lottery which is viewed as good by most people. To be sure I am not against the Lottery since it is a tax on ignorance rather than some money you are compelled to send to the government against your will. The odds of winning are such that you are more likely to be struck by lightning.
            And I even say that people should play the Lottery with this proviso: play with money you can afford to lose. Same for Las Vegas and fantasy football betting. But what about stealing the money from generations that will follow us? That is a horrible crime that is going unseen and unchecked.
            The professed national debt is twenty trillion dollars while unfunded mandates are around a hundred twenty trillion dollars more. America has borrowed this money. The borrowed money must be repaid by someone eventually. The bill will come due in the future. Who will pay it? You know, the suckers.

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