Disneyland Is Out

Deborah Venable

04/11/11

 

So we dodged the bullet on last week’s highly touted “government shutdown.”  Whew!  That was a close one, huh?  We might have had to go a whole week or more with a whole bunch of government employees getting an unintended vacation.  Couldn’t have that!  Cherry Blossom Festival interrupted, national parks closed, monuments off limits, oh, and another Obama vacation or two might have even been interrupted.  And he certainly wasn’t willing to cave on not paying the troops either – too “distracting.”

 

The whole budget mess and debt crisis in this country is laughable because we are expecting that most of the same folks responsible for it all will magically fix it!  Insanity by definition!  While many of us regular folks have awakened to the facts in the matter and are fully aware that belt tightening is the only solution, far too many still don’t understand a budget or its purpose.  They choose to live in a make believe world like Disneyland.

 

Speaking of Disneyland, I’m sure that many American families have made plans to visit the real Disneyland this year.  Depending on each family’s particular budgeting strategy, this could happen in one of two ways – either they have saved the money for the trip, otherwise known as writing the plan into their budget and prioritizing whatever money their necessities leave them for the expenditure, or they will simply put it on a credit card and pay it off later.  People who live in the real world know that a trip to Disneyland is a luxury item that must be prioritized behind things like housing, food, clothing, utilities, other debt, etc.  People who don’t live in the real world demand an imagined right to instant gratification.  Enablers of the latter group fit the mindset of most politicians in charge of Washington D.C.

 

It is no secret that people who get in trouble with too much debt eventually may find themselves in bankruptcy.  It is hard these days to look around and find many regular folks that haven’t been there or very close to it.  Some people jump in and out of multiple bankruptcies throughout their entire lives.  They just don’t know how to budget properly, and they expect instant gratification to overrule severe hardship.  Most of them just don’t know how to say, “we don’t have the money – Disneyland is out!”

 

While it is very hard for most folks to get their minds around the magnitude of a trillion dollars, politicians throw the term around like so much cotton candy at a county fair.  Believe me, not so many years ago a billion dollars was unimaginable to most folks.  The difference now is that we do have quite a few billionaires.  How long will it be before someone reaches that trillionaire mark?  Oh, is that not a real word because there aren’t any yet?

 

In a world where too many people expect that the only way they can become millionaires even is by buying that lucky lottery ticket, no wonder government is expected to pick up the tab for everyone’s necessities.  People just do not want to work their way up any more.  They had rather have the necessities supplied for them by government and their extravagances purchased with debt.  And they call all that freedom??  These same people, then, elect politicians who set about to do exactly what they want – grow a behemoth government to supply all their needs.  If a real grownup steps into office and starts talking real budgeting rules, he is seen as corrupt or mean or just plain stupid.  And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we have a true depiction of exactly what is wrong with the country.

 

Last week was just the beginning of the Congressional theatrics dealing with federal budget and debt.  It was mild compared to what is coming.  The childish irresponsible attitude that has always ruled such public and private debates is evident in all the media coverage of the subject.  It reminds me of a scenario where parents would one day call together their spoiled brat children and announce that from now on the children would make all the major decisions for the family.  Wow!  What could possibly go wrong with that one, huh?  That must not happen.  It is time for the parents to take responsibility for training their children NOT to be spoiled brats.

 

Bottom line – Disneyland is out.  We just cannot afford it this year.

 

 

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