In Greek mythology, even Olympian gods and heroes were subject to a higher divine power known loosely as “fate” — an allotted moira , or destiny, that could not be changed even by thunderbolt-throwing Zeus.
In modern America, debt — whether national, state or trade — now plays the same overarching role as the ancient Greek notion of fate. And the president, Congress and the states for all their various agendas are impotent since they must first pay back trillions that have long ago been borrowed and spent.
Politicians in their hubris who believe they can ignore debt or wish it away are sorely disappointed — as we see now with the plummeting approval ratings of both the administration and Congress.
Take the issue of health-care reform proposals, in which the issue of debt looms large. We are told that more people will be insured, costs will go down and care will not be rationed. But this rhetoric cannot disguise the reality of taking on even more debt.
To cover more Americans, a broke federal government will either have to borrow more or curtail the level of coverage that the currently insured enjoy. Numbers do not lie, and our government either must explain how a radical expansion in medical care will cut back on existing choice and service or where the additional revenue will come from.
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The IMF has extended ‘debt forgiveness’ to various third world entities. Why not America given her record of decades of service to myriad third world internationals, military-wise as well as human aid initiatives? Since the author refers to ‘the fates’ of Greek mythological, there’s another tradition and text that contains economic instructions for renewal. That would be The Torah of the Judea-Christian tradition where it recommends ‘debt forgiveness’ even stipulating a time frame –every seven years. It seems it would now be in order for the great Republic, the United States of America. Doesn’t this get trackbacked to VDH?
One can forgive all dept but this also means in many cases erasing other people’s equity.
( The Government no longer owes money but the money in your bank account is now worthless ! )
Yes one can start from scratch but the cost is a long period of lost in confidence that dept will be repaid ” eventually ” so anyone with money will be reluctant to lend without ironclad guaranties.
When ” Big ” Governments default there are no more guaranties for a long time, but human nature means that eventually a new financial system or economy will emerge and will be fiscally sound for a long time until it too is abused and loses the confidence of the lenders.
When there is a serious disruption of a ” Civilization ” one re-starts from ” square one “: No one worries or is affected today by any fiscal mismanagement by the Romans or the Pharaohs if one want to go back enough in time. LOL !