Remember Wimpy, Popeye the Sailor's portly friend who would gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today? The self-indulging Wimpy was always seeking to satisfy his wants at your expense. Wimpy was only a morally flawed comic book character. The money Wimpy eventually ended up owing for all those hamburgers could not have amounted to much. Today, more Americans than ever are giving into Wimpy’s "gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today."
During the Roosevelt years, an increasing number of Americans began to expect a hamburger today at the expense of someone else. Not until President Lyndon Baines Johnson enacted his "Great Society" in 1964, however, did America's buy-now maybe pay-later binge get into full swing. President Johnson attempted to fight two wars simultaneously—the massive Vietnam War buildup and his War on Poverty.
Lyndon Johnson and administration passed into history, but cost for the "Great Society" continues. By 1992, cost for the "Great Society" and the resulting entitlement programs consumed more than 50 percent of the federal budget.
We paid a price for the deficit spending binge and the resulting increase in money supply. In 1979-80, inflation and interest rates reached double digit figures. Our dollar became questionable on international markets.
Blaming the huge deficits for the double digit rates, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan promised spending cuts. The electorate voted Reagan into office and voted President Jimmy Carter out. A pork-barrel Congress and a growing number of self-interest groups did not take warmly to the new President's proposed budget cuts. Special interests and their congressional toadies—of both political parties—reacted to the possible cuts with howls of self-righteous outrage.
The new President gave into the vote buying program the Democrat controlled Congress favored. Both political parties embraced the Wimpy hamburger theory of economics. The old vote buying deficit spending scheme of Keynesian Economics was given a new name, "Supply-side Economics." We were now told deficits did not matter. Republican and Democrat Congressman acted like drunks let loose in a liquor store and went on a deficit spending binge—buy votes now and let someone else pay later. And today, regardless of balanced budget rhetoric, both political parties continue to embrace Wimpy’s, "I will gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today."
Growing debt and spending, both personal and at all levels of government if not brought under control will shred our social fabric. Our dollar will no longer be wanted. We will become a "Banana Republic," a third-world power. Our middle-class will not exist. A wealthy few will reign. The rest will live in want.
Nonetheless, believing they deserve it, an expanding number of voters demand more at the expense of someone else. Self-serving political candidates coveting elected office above all else, promise more. And both, voter and office holder, propose someone else pay for it.
"Thou shall not steal." "Thou shall not covet." Two commandments Wimpy ignored. Unfortunately, so do too many Americans. The offer of federal monies brings out the looting mentality in the best of people: "If we don’t get the funds someone else will." Federal funds are monies taken from someone else, either through taxation or through increasing the money supply and stealing from everyone through inflation. Using force to take money from one citizen to economically benefit another is thievery.
Yes, it is a political problem. But, our hope cannot be in political parties or their candidates. No matter which party control’s Congress or White House.
Yes, it is a moral problem. We Americans are the most generous people in the world. We are not perfect but we are generous and freedom loving, a result of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
We have been blessed with prosperity. Our prosperity and Judeo-Christian values made us powerful. But other powerful and prosperous civilizations have risen and fallen—victims of self indulgence and decaying values.
We cannot build a free and prosperous America on self indulgence and the false promise of comfort without labor. We must reestablish the Judeo-Christian values of saving, hard work, and self-discipline. And that will take both political action—and most importantly prayer.
Will we go the way of previous civilizations? Or will we attain the promises of God’s best that can be ours? It is up to you. __________Michael E. Odell
"Right is right, even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong about it."
____ G. K. Chesterton
About Me
- Michael E. Odell
- Michael E. Odell, a political polemicist with a working background in sales, finances, politics, writing, broadcasting, and teaching small business classes on several college campuses. He has authored several books including Gold A Layman’s Investment Manual, Business Plans for Lemonade Stands, and Marketing Plans for Lemonade Stands—and an occasional poem for his own pleasure. He was first elected to the State House of Representatives Spokane Valley’s 4th District in 1962 and ran for Congress in 1968. Fifty years an outspoken advocate of less government and more individual responsibility.