The sins of the fathers
I am not political. But my wife is running for School Committee and some of my best friends are very political. So it's rubbing off.
One of my friends basically ordered me to show up at this 'Beer & Budget' gathering for (primarily) fathers to talk with the School Superintendent and a School Committee member about money. I was glad I went. It was a very informative discussion. At many levels. Politically. Financially. Historically.
It got me to thinking about a book I was given by another friend of mine, who is convinced that the financial world as we know it is going to end in the next 10 years. The book, entitled Prophecy of Rich Dad, (there's a whole series of Rich Dad, Poor Dad books by Robert T. Kiyosaki) discusses the fact that the WW II generation has passed on the problem of funding the health care and welfare of the elderly on to the baby boom generation by looting the entire Social Security Trust Fund in order to pay the operating budget of the US government. (This is a massive oversimplification, but it gets to the point.)
It's similar to what has happened in our town. Twenty seven years ago, our 'fathers' in Massachusetts passed a really restrictive law on how much money each town can raise in taxes, so the towns all responded by selling off unused properties and buildings to meet their operating budgets, and then ignoring the decay of the town's schools and other buildings until there was simply no choice but to act. These short-sighted policies have put us in a real bind. Our school enrollments are growing and there's no schools big enough to house them. Starting a little more than 10 years ago, the town has had to go into a massive rebuilding program that will take at least ten more years to complete. When we have finished, I suspect that we will have renovated every school in the district, added two more, and renovated or replaced the Library, Senior Center, Town Hall and various other office buildings at a cost of, oh, somewhere between one and two thirds of a billion dollars. So I get to help pay off the deferred debts of my predecessors. All I can say is that I am glad that I live on the cheap side of town - those $1M+ homeowners on the other side of town are gonna feel it.
Kiyosaki suggests that the problem with government is that it is too easy to push off tough problems to the next generation. I agree. And I don't see this as a liberal vs. conservative issue, either. Liberals are too busy trying to save the world to fix the plumbing, and conservatives are too busy cutting taxes to bother with bridges.
There's a story circulating that we are, as a species, wired only to look out for short-term trouble. Whatever the reason, we'd better get our act together. Global warming, the impending bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare, etc. are now our sins, too, unless we choose to repent of the pattern of pushing off the big problems and face the music.
One of my friends basically ordered me to show up at this 'Beer & Budget' gathering for (primarily) fathers to talk with the School Superintendent and a School Committee member about money. I was glad I went. It was a very informative discussion. At many levels. Politically. Financially. Historically.
It got me to thinking about a book I was given by another friend of mine, who is convinced that the financial world as we know it is going to end in the next 10 years. The book, entitled Prophecy of Rich Dad, (there's a whole series of Rich Dad, Poor Dad books by Robert T. Kiyosaki) discusses the fact that the WW II generation has passed on the problem of funding the health care and welfare of the elderly on to the baby boom generation by looting the entire Social Security Trust Fund in order to pay the operating budget of the US government. (This is a massive oversimplification, but it gets to the point.)
It's similar to what has happened in our town. Twenty seven years ago, our 'fathers' in Massachusetts passed a really restrictive law on how much money each town can raise in taxes, so the towns all responded by selling off unused properties and buildings to meet their operating budgets, and then ignoring the decay of the town's schools and other buildings until there was simply no choice but to act. These short-sighted policies have put us in a real bind. Our school enrollments are growing and there's no schools big enough to house them. Starting a little more than 10 years ago, the town has had to go into a massive rebuilding program that will take at least ten more years to complete. When we have finished, I suspect that we will have renovated every school in the district, added two more, and renovated or replaced the Library, Senior Center, Town Hall and various other office buildings at a cost of, oh, somewhere between one and two thirds of a billion dollars. So I get to help pay off the deferred debts of my predecessors. All I can say is that I am glad that I live on the cheap side of town - those $1M+ homeowners on the other side of town are gonna feel it.
Kiyosaki suggests that the problem with government is that it is too easy to push off tough problems to the next generation. I agree. And I don't see this as a liberal vs. conservative issue, either. Liberals are too busy trying to save the world to fix the plumbing, and conservatives are too busy cutting taxes to bother with bridges.
There's a story circulating that we are, as a species, wired only to look out for short-term trouble. Whatever the reason, we'd better get our act together. Global warming, the impending bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare, etc. are now our sins, too, unless we choose to repent of the pattern of pushing off the big problems and face the music.
posted by Cliff at 8:24 PM
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