Government Solutions to Personal Problems?

Grandpa was invited to speak at a local tea party gathering. Being a small community, the gathering was not large but you could see that it was a gathering of some very concerned citizens

“My friends, allowing arguments of emotion to persuade us to expect our governments to implement social programs as a solution to our personal problems will eventually bankrupt this nation as it will every nation of people.  This is especially true if we do not find different solutions to the ideas of Social Security and health care

We are already seeing far too many people ending up living in the state of poverty because they expected to be able to live on their Social Security benefits alone.  And we are seeing far too many people going bankrupt because their health coverage wasn’t what they expected it to be.  Both are the direct result of accepting misleading arguments that government or a third party is the solution to our personal problems.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and praise or blame anybody.  I’ll leave that up to the ideologues.  The only thing I’ll say is that we, the people, have been induced to be spenders of our money instead of savers of our money and that spells disaster.  It is time we took back our lives.  We can no longer live for the day and leave the problems of tomorrow for others to solve.  We must begin by recognizing our own foolishness and instilling into our children the need to take full responsibility for their lives. 


This year the govern- ments of this nation will have a gross public debt as much as 100% of the Gross Domestic Product.  And that debt is projected to increase to 128% by 2014.  The debt of federal government, by itself, is projected to reach 100% of the Gross national product by the year of 2012.  The chart shown here illustrates that so very clearly.

Now, to put perspective to this we can look at it from an individual point of view.  It is like saying that every penny an individual earns would have to go towards obligatory debts without leaving a penny towards any discretionary bills for a whole year.  How many of you can go without eating for a year?  How many of you can ask your families to go without eating for a year?  How many of you think you can go into a bank and expect them to give you a loan with a debt like that on your portfolio?”

Grandpa closed his presentation by saying this before he stepped down from the podium.

“Now, there are those who will degrade this grass roots movement demanding fiscal responsibility from those who rule over us.  They will try to demean the purpose of this cause but stand fast, my friends and stand tall in spite of their trying to make you feel guilty about what we are doing.  They will call you cold-hearted and without any feelings towards those in need as I have been called many times but stand firm.  Do not cave in to their emotional outbursts.

They’ll try to place blame on others.   Blame never solved problems, only solutions do.  And personal problems are best solved with personal solutions not by government solutions.  Socialism, in any form, is the eventual downfall of any society. That is the one guarantee I can give you in this life. ”