Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Champagne Tastes, Beer Money

When I started earning my own money, picking blueberries all day at the age of ten, which I wouldn’t be able to get away with today if I was ten, I took real pride in my earnings.  It was my money, why shouldn’t I?  I didn’t earn much in those days, 8 bucks a hundred pounds was the going rate, and when I first started picking, I could barely pick a hundred pounds in a six day work week during the summer.

Anway, the money I earned I stashed away.  I wanted to buy a suit so I could look like a sharp dressed man.  Just like my Dad.  The suit I coveted, from a J.C. Penney catalog, was pricey.  If I earned only 8 bucks a week, it was going to take me about six weeks to earn enough to buy.  My Mum suggested something a little less expensive, but I was adamant, I wanted that J.C. Penney suit.  My Dad, overhearing my Mum and I discussing this said, “Honey, that boy has champagne tastes and beer money.  Let him get the suit he wants, but make him pay for it.” Which is exactly what happened.

Why do I bring this up, because I just read a long article titled “How to Get Federal Spending Under Control." The article, in draft form, was written by Brian M. Riedl and is available online via The Heritage Foundation.

Riedl’s article is quite informative and has many, many links embedded throughout, so you could spend alot more time investigating the article than I have so far.

The simple answer, to getting federal spending under control, is of course to cut back.  Unfortunately, unlike the real world, governments look on individuals as a kind of perpetual motion machine.  The individuals are always working and the government is always stealing the individuals’ rewards.  Individuals can’t stop working, so the government doesn’t stop stealing individuals’ money.

The government doesn’t have champagne tastes any longer, though.  It has stolen so much beer money, and the champagne flows so ceaselessly, the government can’t even taste it any longer and is always in search of something “better” to spend it on.  I say have all the professional jobholders earn their beer money out in the blueberry field at 8 bucks per hundred pounds and then see if they’re so willing to have someone else spend their money for them.

Via Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/10 at 11:37 AM
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