By Harold Pease, Ph. D
The national debt now exceeds 18 trillion dollars, almost half added during the Barack Obama administration alone, and is increased by three to four billion every day and neither major political party nor network is talking about it as a national emergency. Who is slated to repay this crippling, gigantic burden—our children—the unborn or those too young to have objected? The ones who laid it on their backs, by spending what they did not have, are now dead, dying, or retiring.
Well, reportedly one of those “new debt slaves,” the so-called millennials, voiced her complaint five years ago, November 18, 2010 with a solution to the problem. When she was born 21 years prior, in 1989, the national debt was only around 2.7 trillion dollars, said then to be crippling and gigantic. In an article entitled “Put me in Charge,” first appearing in the Waco Tribune Herald (author unnamed), she outlined four controversial solutions. They follow:
“Put me in charge of food stamps. I’d get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho’s, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.
“Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I’d do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we’ll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, or smoke, then get a job.
“Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your “home” will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.
“In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a “government” job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22-inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the “common good.”
“Before you write that I’ve violated someone’s rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules. Before you say that this would be “demeaning” and ruin their “self esteem,” consider that it wasn’t that long ago that taking someone else’s money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.
“If we are expected to pay for other people’s mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.
“And while you are on Gov’t subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov’t welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.”
Although some of the ideas offered by this angry 21-year-old “debt slave” were scoffed at on some websites at the time as being excessive, public reaction was generally favorable. Still, the millennial generation is the most “abused” generation in American history and they have a right to be angry. Very angry!! Their birthright has been stolen. Unfortunately this message of abuse was only accelerated and the 14 trillion dollars national debt, when the article was first written, is now over four trillion dollars larger. Moreover, 14 million more Americans have become dependent on food stamps since she wrote the above. For the “debt slave” class there seems no hope.
We have the normal three solutions: tax more, inflate more, or cut more. We could double our taxes but that would destroy incentive and resources to create jobs. We could inflate the dollar making every dollar already earned worth less. But that would rob those on fixed incomes and seriously damage the lower classes that don’t have the money to purchase gold or silver to ensure the value of what they have saved. Or finally, we could cut half the free or subsidized “non-essential” programs and live within our means, which everyone supports so long as it is not their program that is cut.
We have got to do something. Soon those receiving welfare will exceed those not on welfare and they will never vote to end a system wherein they are benefited. Perhaps these solutions, offered by the most impacted age group, represented by this young author, will become even more popular as time goes on. Certainly we cannot simply dismiss them because they seem insensitive. The alternative may be national bankruptcy.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution.