It is said the truly smart will learn
from the harsh lessons of others' failures. I can say that one member
of the WP clan is that smart, that being the youngest of the WP
sisters. (As she says, she made her own mistakes while growing up
that our parents never found out about.)
It would be great if the political
class presently ruling the US was as smart as my youngest sister.
Unfortunately they are not.
They see the economic meltdown
occurring in the Euro-zone, yet refuse to learn the lessons countries
like Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain are teaching us, the
primary one being that eventually you will run out of other people's
money to fund all the wonderful social programs that have been used
to bribe the electorate.
Italy is the latest to teeter on the
brink of insolvency, and should it go over the edge it is quite
likely it will pull the rest of the Euro-zone with it. Greece's
default damaged the European economy yet it has only a fraction of
the GDP of Italy. Should Italy default Europe will take an additional
$2 trillion hit it cannot afford. Is it any wonder Germany is
considering abandoning the Euro and going back to the mark? Can
anyone deny that this problem has been driving the British public to
demand a referendum about whether or not to remain in the EU? At
least those two countries see the problem and realize they'll have to
bankrupt themselves in a doomed effort to prop up economic policies
from Brussels.
But too many of our own politicians at
the state and federal level, regardless of party, seem oblivious to
the fact that unless we make some drastic changes in how our federal
government taxes and spends we will be headed down the same path.
Labor leaders ignore the fact that neither businesses or taxpayers
are a bottomless source of funds, shortchanging their own members by
making promises no one can keep.
Should the US fail to put its
financial/economic house in order, and right quick, it will pull the
world economy down with it into a depression unlike any we've seen
before.