Every American is experiencing a sense of discouragement, including our politicians. What has caused this?
Yes, we all feel discouraged with our government right now. How did we get to this point?
Our kindnesses have caught up with us.
The first kindness led to discouragement…
Before World War II, few people went to college. People graduated from high school and got jobs from which they planned to retire. These jobs paid well enough that families could live comfortably on one income. The US government had a balanced budget, and the government’s balanced budget reflected the financial security of it citizens.
On December 11, 1941, Adolph Hitler declared war on the US. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded by declaring war on Germany. Then, on May 8, 1945, the Axis powers (our enemies) surrendered unconditionally.
The US was able to gradually get back on its feet after the war, but European countries could not. President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3, 1948, and aid was distributed to 16 European nations, including Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, West Germany, and Norway.
It was good of the US to provide funds to enable these countries to get back on their feet, but it had a negative side effect. These countries grew and grew and were able to compete in world trade and compete with the US. Truman had no idea that this kindness would eventually inspire discouragement among the US citizens.
The US welcomed foreign goods, but some of the other countries did not welcome our goods in return. Some of these countries discouraged their citizens from purchasing our goods by making them cost much more than their own goods. They placed high tariffs on US goods and caused their prices to skyrocket. Hence the US lost footing in world trade.
However, these same countries did not place high tariffs on other overseas countries. So US companies began sending their manufacturing jobs overseas. From their foreign factories, they could sell their goods all over the world and avoid paying higher tariffs.
The indirect and unintended results of the Marshall plan indirectly led to our current discouragement.
A second kindness led to more discouragement…
During the Great Depression in the 1930’s, the US created Social Security. Social Security was a mandatory retirement plan for every US citizen. It was a good plan! The social security taxes paid by the “baby boomers” created a great surplus in this fund.
Baby boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964, during the huge population increase that occurred after World War II. The baby boomers outnumbered subsequent generations, so their contribution to Social Security created a huge surplus.
Somewhere along the way, the US government decided to use this surplus for other new programs to help other people. Yes, helping people is a good thing, but that use of the baby boomers’ retirement is hurting the US now.
Again, another kindness indirectly led to our current discouragement!
Now the US must pay the baby boomers back the money they contributed throughout all of their working years, but the US government has already used up the money intended for that purpose—in spite of the current almost $23 trillion-dollar deficit that grows each day.
The deficit in the Security Program will continue for many years, for more than one reason. The government now uses the Social Security program to pay people who have not paid into the system. Also, due to the decrease in population after 1965, there are fewer people paying into Social Security.
The third kindness also triggered our discouragement…
To eliminate poverty and injustice, President Lyndon B. Johnson began launching the Great Society programs in 1964. Since their inception in 1964, the US has spent twenty-two trillion dollars on these programs.
Unfortunately, this kindness of the US government to its citizens has created costly and unrealistic expectations, for Americans as well as immigrants. People in other countries increasingly migrate to the US, believing as Americans do that the US government can save them.
Sure, it would be nice if the government could afford to improve everyone’s quality of life, but the US government has been operating in a deficit for more than ten years. We must remember that the government is the people in any country, and—to prevent discouragement–we the people of the US must learn to live within our means.
If US citizens want their government to improve their quality of life, they must first improve their government’s financial health.
Here are a few ideas to end our discouragement.
- We must continue to motivate US corporations to move their jobs back to the US! Our leadership must resolve our trade issues to cause to happen.
- I agree with helping others who cannot work, even if they have not paid any money into the system. But the government needs to divide Social Security into two separate departments. One for its original purpose as a retirement safety net, and another one for the other ways the government uses this money. Our government should save the money paid into Social Security funds for its original purpose.
- There are no money trees in Washington DC. Our government only has the money that we pay into it. Therefore, we need to adjust our own expectations of the US government as well as our expectations for our own quality of life. We need to improve the health of our government first, and then look to our government to improve our lives.
Our discouragement has created two different camps of people. People who want the US government to continue to support its people and other countries in a lifestyle the government cannot afford, and those who do not want to do that.
Unfortunately, these two camps do not see eye to eye on very many things.
I definitely believe in kindness, and I am certain of one thing. Kindness got us into this, and it will take even more kindness to end it. Our leaders need to be kind to each other and work together to find solutions!
What kindness can you provide that might help? Think about our issues and what you think will solve them. If you have any suggestions, please communicate them to our leaders!
Who knows? You might be the person who conceives the idea that ends US discouragement.
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Learn from history instead of repeating it!
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Yes, our government did this…
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