Kids, sit down for a minute. Your father and I need to apologize. What’s more, we need to apologize not only to you, but to your future children.
I know, I know. The idea of our talking to your future children is pretty silly, but we need to try.
Remember when we told you to spend your allowance wisely? Remember when we learned about “usury” in the Bible? We haven’t followed that advice. I keep saying “we.” What I mean is your father and me and politicians, those of us in the country who vote and make decisions.
Let me try to explain. Over the years we’ve gotten used to buying all sorts of things. Some we buy as a family, others we buy as a government. We bought roads and defense, clothes and houses, doctor visits and retirement, movies and games, travel and education. But, kids, for many of the things our government has, we didn’t figure out how to pay for them first.
Some economists — people who study money and trade — think this is a big crisis; others do not. For a while we’ve left the problem to the politicians, but now I realize — as we’ve told you for years — that in our hearts we know what’s right and what’s wrong. And pretending for years and years to have more money than you actually do have — whether you’re a country or a family — is wrong.
See all these things we have? Truth is, a lot of them we don’t really own. Our country gets them by borrowing from other countries.
We’ve always stressed the importance of making good on our debts. But to start doing that, we first have to stop borrowing a very large amount every year. During emergencies like war, disasters or when our economy is in trouble, it might make sense to borrow. But now, when there aren’t any emergencies and most people have jobs, we are borrowing even more.
Our politicians haven’t been willing to face these debts. Some of them say they’re willing to make hard choices, but not enough of them agree at one time to address the issue. Instead, they pass the buck, as it’s called. Rather than raise taxes, eliminate waste and reduce spending, politicians choose being popular over preventing the crisis. Eventually we’ll owe more than we can pay off. When that happens, it could be very bad, and whoever are the citizens and leaders at that time will have to deal with the problem, and we fear it will be you, or your children.
I wish I could say that politicians and adults who vote are going to stop borrowing and pretending we can do and have things we don’t have money for, but I can’t. In the middle of the night I think about going to a government building and shouting about this, but I can’t picture it having much effect and, in the light of morning, we take you to school, go to work, come home and spend time with you. Maybe everybody is thinking that everybody else should do with less, but that they themselves don’t need to.
I know this sounds funny, but it’s almost like we invaded ourselves with another country by giving them our money bit by bit. Please remember what we’ve said about how to handle money; it will be important when it’s time for you to make decisions. I know it will.
I just can’t say exactly when.
Erik Stern Professor, Department of Performing Arts Weber State University
E.A. Stern was born and raised in Los Angeles, is a professor in the Department of Performing Arts at Weber State University, and lives in Ogden.