Election provided a civic lesson for the young -- debt is good

The issue was very clear going into the presidential election three weeks ago -- do voters want a big government or a shot at a smaller government? A majority of voters let the minority know that they wanted the large and growing government the reelection of Barack Obama would ensure.

Here locally we've taught our youth a more direct lesson: Making do with what you've got is bad. Big spending with borrowed money is good. And so we see a headline like this: Midlanders pass largest bond in city’s history referring to the school board supporters' successful effort to get voter approval to add a $163 million bond to the existing taxpayer debt.

Maybe it's our educational system that's to blame, not just for that particular bond, but for the casual acceptance of debt as a part life. After all, that same educational system encourages college students to incur mountains of school loan debt.

Midland, Texas, is experiencing an economic boom in the boom/bust cycle that typifies the oil and gas industry. But a boom has a mind altering effect -- it creates the belief that things will be different this time. So when the bust occurs it comes as a big surprise.

Here's another headline to ponder: Texas voters’ local bond approvals create future generations’ debt legacy. That article concludes:

Media reports regularly indicate voters’ “overwhelming” approval of bond proposals. If voters fail to adopt new responsibility with regard to these decisions, perhaps the hindsight takeaway from the Nov. 6 election will become that not only did voters “overwhelmingly” approve bond proposals, but they overwhelmingly approved saddling future generations – including their children and grandchildren – with an unmanageable, unsustainable level of debt for decades to come.

Voters should start practicing this mantra, "But we did it for you," as those children and grandchildren grow up and vote with their feet to escape the debt they inherited from all those well intentioned citizens. See California.

Photo source.

Comments

[Hunnewell]

"...Werde ich jetzt von beiden Fanlagern kritisiert ..." Na, geliebt und gehasst.

[Geo]

Das ist, was sie sagte.