West destroying themselves
Ten years after 9/11, much of the free world paused to remember and remind us to “Never forget.” It truly is hard to forget that day for those of us old enough. It was one of those history-making days that transcended everything running parallel, like the day JFK was shot or the landing on the moon for the first time.
But as I reflected on that day I was struck by a dichotomy; how far we have come in defeating the enemies of the West and how it may not matter if politicians don’t get their head around our spending problem.
The people who hijacked those planes were bent on their mission to ultimately destroy America and the West. In many ways they needn’t have bothered. We have been destroying ourselves from within for a long time. Unless and until western governments get control of their fiscal deficits, they will accomplish what Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed never could. We simply cannot afford to support so many politically correct causes and sacrosanct programs such as our healthcare system.
Equally, we cannot afford the ridiculous demands of groups like the BCTF and other public sector unions in their contract talks. Where in the world do they think the money will come from?
The unions who drive the debate of the left in this country seem to think that there is no end of money available if we only tax the rich more. Oh, and those damn corporations. And most especially banks and oil companies! It doesn’t matter to them that these are the very organizations who generate all the money to pay for the public sector. The unions are content to bite the hand that feeds.
They really need a reality check as they stand there with both their hand and bottom lip out. Here’s a clue: want more money? Try providing more value. Or get a marketable skill. It’s amazing how much money business will pay for value provided.
But I digress. The USA under the leadership of Barack Obama is now getting frightening. Not faux frightening as the lib-left screamed about the stewardship of the country under George W. Bush. But real frightening, as in their interest payments to China, which holds a significant amount of American foreign debt, will entirely fund the Army of the People’s Republic in a few short years. Not debt payments, interest payments alone.
That’s unsustainable in the short term, let alone over the next decades. If the American economy gets driven over the cliff, it doesn’t matter how responsible our governments have been. We’re done too. And when that happens, all of western society will go down the same drain.
Bin Laden could have just waited and watched the West do it to ourselves.
-30-
Crime & Punishment 
Leo, as usual you have hit the nail on the head with this one. If the USA goes bankrupt, we will not be far behind. The cost of what we pay with all the social programs for all the freeloaders in this country is staggering. Sooner rather than later, someone has too stand up and admit we can’t afford all this social crap. It’s killing us. When I look and see what I pay each year in direct taxes off my paycheque, add in all the GST/PST from all my receipts, Property taxes etc, I lose over 50% of what I earn in taxes. We are reaching the critical point of being overtaxed to pay for extravagant social experiments
Tmac
September 14, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Right on the money Leo. I’ve had this conversation with a number of Canadians who thought that Obama was the Baby Jesus for bringing in his Healthcare Bill. All the Democrats point to Canada as the Great Utopia. I tell them that as the old Chinese saying goes, ‘be careful what you wish for’ and that someone’s got to pay for this and wait until you see your tax rates once this thing goes through.
My father-in-law went for heart tests at VGH. They told him he had a couple of 90% blockages then sent him home and put him on a 4 month waiting list to see a cardiac surgeon. He died a month later.
All of my wife’s American relatives said that if Dad had taken those tests in any U.S. hospital he’d have been taken straight upstairs and had the operation that day or the next at the latest.
These guys run a couple of restaurants that employ over 100 people. If Obama’s bill passes, they’ll either have to re-structure or go under because they can’t afford the costs.
As President Reagan once said, ‘The closest thing we have to eternal life on earth is a government program’
Bob
September 20, 2011 at 5:14 am