Family Spending, Government Style

I have a new found interest in and respect for the savings of cold-hard-cash for various reasons; it’s easier to sleep at night with a good cushion, you never know when emergency may strike and I have come to loathe micro-loans known as credit cards.

So this $100M Government initiative is right up my alley right? I mean, this is fiscal responsibility at its best, yes? We’ll use both sides of the paper for printing – technology that has never before been available. We’ll cancel a few phone lines, turn off our computer monitors when not in use, you’ve heard the news reports – hopefully.

Well, let’s take a look at this type of savings plan and what happens when the rubber meets the road for the average American.

The total outlay budget this year for our Federal Government is $3,107,000,000,000 (that is $3.107 Trillion), according to whitehouse.gov and the Office of Management and Budget’s page. Our aggressive $100M savings plan thus breaks out this way:

$100,000,000 savings/$3,107,000,000,000 outlay budget = .000032 or .0032% total savings

That’s right, our Federal Government is tightening the belt an astonishing .0032%.

Now, according to the Census Bureau, the median US Household Income (HHI) was $50,233 in 2007. Let’s say aggressively that income rose 5% in 2008 and 2009 bringing the median HHI to $55,382 at the end of this year. Assuming that the average American family also took it upon themselves to sacrificially save .0032% this year for the security of their future, each average American family would save annually:

$1.77

That’s planning for a solid future, being fiscally responsible with managing your household and truly, cutting back on your standard of living.

Now, in a similar manner the Federal Government, once again according to whitehouse.gov, is budgeting total receipts of $2,700,000,000,000 for a short fall of $407,000,000,000 to expenditures. The spending plan breaks out this way:

$407,000,000,000 deficit/$2,700,000,000,000 receipts = .1507 or 15.07% over spending

Now, when a country overspends, it has to borrow, either from another country (China) or has to mint more money (dilution of gold backed funds aka inflation and borrowing against money that has not yet been earned and taxes paid on those same earnings by my great-grandchildren). In other words, loans are needed to fill the gap.

Once again, let’s bring this down to real life and assume that the average American family is over spending their HHI by 15.07% or $8,307. The average American family now has choices, take out a loan(s), get more open credit or some type of combination of both. However, at some point in time that same family will run out of credit available to them, max out their monthly income to just paying loans and – - – shock, if they cannot up their income will most likely loose everything. We happen to be in this very case in this country. People and business have overspent, primarily with credit and we are no feeling those results nationwide.

To draw this all together, if the average American family were to spend like the Federal Government, we can quickly see the disastrous results. If that same American family, faced with liquidity issues were to decide to start saving like the Federal Government, the savings would only amount to $1.77 against their $8,307 yearly over-spending or .02%. Eventually the over expenditure would catch up and the family would be rendered insolvent.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on this. I just thought I’d share the truths of the Feds (all parties are at fault here) compared to the Average American Family.

It’s the Economy Stupid

Still need more proof… read THIS article.

You Must See This

You must see this website (Audacity of Deception and Hypocrisy) before you vote in this years election for our next President.  For anyone who thinks that Barak Obama has an ounce of decency, morality, integrity or pro-life bent… look at the records, the videos and hear the testimonials. 

 

How tragic if our country chooses a leader that so obviously supports infanticide.

The Foundation of Holistically Pro-Life

Politics is one of my interests.  The debates, the strategies and in past years Tim Russert, his white board and Super Bowl excitement have always been fun for me to watch.

This year is very different for me.  You see late time we voted for a president I was (of course) four years younger (21 that is) and had just had my first child.  It was ever present in my mind that a my choice for candidate had to be pro-life.  

This year is much different for me.  I’ve added two additions to my clan and have come to increasingly value the unborn, the mothers considering abortion and the fathers that desperately wish for their children to live and not be cast out.  While I’ve always been against abortion in theory, I’ve never been as enraged about this battle as I am this year.

For this post, I want to focus on the flaw in thinking that a vote for the candidate who is pro social justice, environmental protection, against any war, etc… but supports abortion and a women’s right to choose is a responsible, educated, rational or somehow ubber philosophical decision that only the most learned of scholars could truly understand as being somehow pro-life.  

The premise is this, Obama (let’s get this clear right off the bat) has very pro-life stance because of his position on universal health care (which by the way, if you think things are bad now, wait and see what happens if UHC would actually come to pass), his stance on environmental issues and overall tone of ending war and protection of the poor.  However, he very clearly is a liberal as they come on issues related to a women’s right to choose – aka the murder of millions of babies through doctor assisted homicide.

The argument is Utilitarian.  The greatest good of this candidate will be offset their flaws. 

The rebuttal is this, the foundation of all sanctity of life discussions has to first be brought back to why the discussion of social justice, ending war, environmental protection, etc… is even important in the first place.  The reason is this, because human lives and their quality of life matter (I will never disagree with that statement).  So then, we now need to define human life.  Human life is separated from the rest of the animal kingdom by two things; the ability to reason and an created (thus having a beginning), everlasting soul.  The often quoted verse of the Bible, Jeremiah 1:5 states “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed yo a prophet to the nations.”  If a baby or fetus were to not have a soul or meaning until it was a certain age of gestation, what is that line and how can we define it.  If it is the magical push through the birth canal that finally gives a baby purpose, what is so magical about that ride that creates the meaning.  If it is the second trimester, why?  Because all of the

Life’s Too Short

For anyone and everyone who may occasionally stumble onto this page… you noticed it was down.  Now it’s back.  There are a lot of reason’s, mostly, life’s too short to not speak your mind.  Secondly, you can call it inspiration from a peer that had no idea they were inspiring me.

For too long my generation has flat been confused.  Confused may be a bad term, naive, lacking discernment or just plain ignorant could be potential “fill-ins” to that gap.  I’ve worked with people my age who are scratching and clawing their way to promotions just to fail because their stupidity and immaturity is working itself out in the very manner they believe will propel them to the next pay level.  I’ve also spent time with people who have only ever held one job and think they’ve got life locked up and figured out and fail to see the real world around them and the knowledge and experience surrounding them. I’ve talked with enough people across the country my age to also know that my generation is one who views themselves as entitled to respect for no reason other than the fact they want it.  Respect and attention.

Something has to change.  While I’m not believing that my blog (or blob as it could be!) will actually change society, maybe, just maybe, it could help wake up one person to the facts that respect is earned, knowledge may be learned but discernment is NOT an automatic byproduct, and that we really can learn from those older than us (both living and dead).

Hand in hand with this is the idea that there are absolute truths.  Truths that you can firm stand on, can unashamedly hold to and truths that transcend culture, current day fads and movements and truths that never need to be re-examined to find their validity, but rather plainly taught within any culture such that the listener can appropriately apply to daily life.  

I also believe that despite what the press would want us to think, that my generation should not be characterized by a bunch of lazy, arrogant saps in society!  I also think that the idea of my generation being composed by a majority of people pushing away rational, objective thought is the prodding of the minority of “thinkers” that choose to try and redefine (perhaps subtly) certain objective, historical truths that their will cannot bend to.

So why write again – Life’s Too Short.  There has to be some voices for my generation that are rational, objective and mainstream.  Too often the minority is the loudest foghorn and the majority starts to believe their being overrun!