Everybody Is Doing It!

One of the most repeated arguments my liberal acquaintances launch regarding Health Care Reform, Climate Change legislation, and other reform is, “The European Nations are doing it.”That argument follows the same childhood argument whose logic for doing something is based on, “Everyone else is doing it.

Perhaps you recall when you were a child your mother may have told you not to do something you wanted to do. It is likely you responded to her by saying “All the other kids are doing it.”

Probably, she asked, “If all the other kids jumped off of a cliff would you?”

The United States was founded as a unique and contrary country. When all the other nations in Europe were monarchies our founding fathers had the vision to guide us to become a democracy. Imagine what things would be like if George Washington would have become King George I, just because all the other nations in Europe had kings.

Our ancestors who emigrated from Europe to the United States didn’t come over here because the United States was doing what Europe was doing.  They came over here because the United States was unique and not doing what European nations did.

The U.S. did everything possible to try to avoid the butchery of the Napoleonic Wars that raged from Spain to Moscow. We didn’t say Europe is at war we should be at war.  Finally, because our merchant marine was being pressed by the British Navy the U.S. entered war against Britain.

Even in the 20^th Century when European Nations embroiled the earth in the two greatest bloodbaths the world has ever seen, the U.S. did not follow the European nations blindly into war just because Europe was at war.  Ultimately the U.S. was dragged into WWII when there was no recourse but to defend ourselves.

Now, the European nations have overspent. The 11 or so million people in Greece are 300 Billion Euros in debt. To put this in perspective it would be like the state of Illinois which has a population roughly the size of Greece being in debt for almost $400 Billion instead of $13 Billion.

Unfortunately, Greece is not alone. Nations such as Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy, the so called pigs of Europe followed Greece in promising their people more than they can ever deliver. The consequences for the populations of Greece, its brother pig nations, and perhaps the Euro may be catastrophic.

Things are so bad in Greece the government which is more to the left than the previous government has been forced to take such drastic steps in order to reduce expenditures there are riots in the streets.

Do liberals really wish the United States to follow the European nations into debt load that can mean lower quality of life, reduced services, reduced pay, perhaps brink on raging inflation and even growing hunger and homelessness? After all, the European nations are doing it.

Despite what liberals may claim most conservatives are not against health care reform or many other changes in our society. However, most conservatives understand that as we make these changes we must:

Be able to pay for them

Reduce waste so the same amount of money does more

Allow states to have programs that reflect the populations within their borders

Not be like lemmings and follow European nations over a precipice that will cause hardship for most of our population.

Currently, the argument being waged between conservatives and liberals over spending is much like the strife that occurs in many marriages when one spouse believes s/he can “charge baby charge” and the other spouse believes that unless the family lives within its means and saves there will be negative consequences.

Like the liberals the spouse that wishes to spend will accuse the spouse that wishes to save of denying the family of things they “must have, of having a hard heart, and not caring.” Typically the  spendthrifty spouse cannot differentiate between what is wanted and what is needed.  His/her argument is based on we must have these things is because friends or neighbors have them.

 It is only when the bad times come that the error of their ways appears in the form of crushing debt that may mean drastic deterioration of life styles, loss of home, repossession of automobiles, and so on.

Unfortunately, by then it is usually too late for the practices of the fiscally responsible spouse to do any good. All too often the result is bankruptcy, divorce, heartache and anguish. All because one spouse wanted to do what everyone else was doing and the other spouse did not take action to save the family.

It isn’t too late for the United States. However, we are dangerously close to the precipice.   Only time and future elections will  let us know if we can be the nation that did not follow what European nations, or if we go over the financial precipice along with the pigs of Europe.