Some of the smartest guys I know aren't very concerned that our national debt topped $36 trillion last week, and kept right on growing.
We're talking significant gray matter here. One is a mechanical engineer. Another is a lawyer. Another is a computer whiz. And the last guy spent a career working at one of the biggest firms on Wall Street. All four are retired.
And all four have well-thought-out reasons to shake their heads in disbelief at the size of the national debt, but to nevertheless accept it as reality, and go on about their business. They're not losing sleep over it. Like the old song, “Don't Worry, Be Happy.”
The engineer had the most concise, easily-explained reason for not worrying about the debt. Way back in 2015, when the debt was a far more svelte $19 trillion, he explained his lack of concern:
“Why worry about it? We'll be dead before the (bio material) hits the fan.”
That's a pretty nuts and bolts, pragmatic assessment of the situation. We'll be pushing up daisies long before the nuts and bolts work themselves loose, and the whole American economy flies apart because of our huge debt.
The downside, as I see it, is guilt about the world we leave our kids and grand kids, because we refuse to live within our means. Seems like piggish excess to me, spending almost a third more than we take in, because we're too selfish to run government like a responsible household budget.
Oink, oink, oink.
The retired lawyer noted my ongoing concern over debt, and said that for his entire adult life, it has always been this way. And the country still seems to be going strong, with the stock market consistently reaching all-time highs, and America remaining the best place to invest.
Lawyers are taught to never ask a question they don't know the answer to, so he's apparently comfortable not questioning our debt. Go with the flow, Dave.
The computer whiz explained that there are many factors that go into running an economy as large and complex as ours. And there are ways of looking at our debt that make it less a factor than at other times in our history. He found my argument that we should run government like a household budget overly simplistic.
True, winning World War II ran up our debt to unprecedented levels, and that was a very good thing to do. But these days we're running up that kind of debt to finance business as usual, not to fund a two-front world war. Why?
Most of us take on significant debt when we buy a home. But when we buy a home, some lender has to approve the loan, and that puts a ceiling on what we can borrow. Not so with our government. They just keep borrowing and borrowing.
So I still think what our government takes in should set the limit, within reason, on what we spend.
Then there's the guy who spent a career on Wall Street. He came closest to agreeing with my worries over mounting debt.
But he says that while Republicans sometimes make cutting spending a priority when they're in power, Democrats undo all of the Republican frugality as soon as they regain control. So what's the use? The spendthrifts – in both parties, but the Democrats seem proud of it, while the Republicans are at least sheepish about it – always seem to prevail.
So why fight it? It's always been this way (the lawyer's case), it's complicated (the computer guy's case), and we'll probably be dead before the fecal matter hits the fan (the engineer's case).
But, I was an English major in college. And we read Ernest Hemingway's 1926 classic, “The Sun Also Rises,” in which character Mike Campbell is asked, “How did you go bankrupt?”
“Two ways,” said Mike. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
“What brought it on?”
“Friends,” said Mike. “I had a lot of friends. False friends. Then I had creditors, too. Probably had more creditors than anybody in England.”
My fear, when it comes to our $36 trillion in debt, is that we're nearing then end of the “gradually” stage.
And nearing “suddenly.”
Dave Simpson can be reached at: DaveSimpson145@hotmail.com
