What does an old founding father know, anyway!
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“The earth belongs to each… generation during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.” Thomas Jefferson, Letter from Paris, September 6, 1789
Obviously Jefferson’s thesis is sound but not entirely applicable to this era. We have come along way from an agrarian nation in which capital does not spiral too well — that is, if slavery is not counted. The industrialization evolved rapidly, culminating in the oligarchy of the Robber Barons that effectively dictated the nation’s economy driven by investments and therefore lending, not only to enterprising individuals but to governments here and abroad as well. By this systemic procedure, the oligarchy insured itself perpetuity.
Though the names have changed and Theodore Roosevelt busted the anti-trust schemers, very little has changed, except for a brief period during the post WW II days when the cost of capital was dramatically reduced by spiraling wages, and the determination of government to pay down the war debt. This was only possible when revenue exceeded spending, helped by the growing intake of social security far outweighing its outlay.
Alas, increasingly the cold war — together with its many hot spots — took its toll on the wealth of the nation. Today there is a new war on terrorism causing the national debt — let alone the tax cuts — to enter the stratosphere — this very day at $7,063,087,073,837.25, and climbing daily by $1.97 billion. This means that each of us individually is indebted to the tune of $24,081.02 [Google Search]. And the baby boomers are fast approaching social security years! — while the plutocrats are licking their chops and manipulating the economy so they get more bang for the buck out of a shaky future.
Perhaps it is time to take another look at Jefferson and his moral point that it is unfair to saddle our children and theirs with this profligate trend.
