Hennessy's View

This is the fourth in a series. If you haven’t, please read part 1, part 2, and part 3. 

Because so many school systems have driven great English literature out of students’ hands and minds, it’s possible that some kids never read Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.  If you’ve never read this classic, please do so now.  You need it.

Back?  Good. Fascinating stuff, isn’t it?  And so much more accessible than David Copperfield, which was my introduction to Dickens.

So now you know that Scrooge was a miser who treated the whole world and all of its inhabitants with a cruel contempt.  Scrooge loved money and nothing else.

But during the course of the story, a series of spirits massage Scrooge’s conscience. They begin with his own happy youth, when Scrooge still enjoyed the presence of other people.  They proceed through Scrooges present and into his future.

Somewhere along the way, Scrooge changes.  He has a conversion. He learns to love others as himself.

If I were a Millennial—those born between 1983 and about 2002—I’d ask myself, “why?”

The spirits didn’t argue politics or morality with Scrooge.  They didn’t tell him his taxes were too low, and they didn’t send bureaucrats to audit his books and extract fines.

Instead, they made it personal.  They showed him his real life—past, present, and future—in living color and 3D.  They simply held up a mirror and provided him clear evidence of what his future would be if remained on the path he’d taken.

Scrooge reformed because he knew a lonely, unhappy death awaited him. He knew that people would mock his memory.

Millennials should take a hard look at our national debt. Not just where it stands, but the direction it’s going.

Look at the amount of debt that Gen X, Boomers, and WWII have saddled you with.  It’s about $50,000 and going up every day.

What did you get for that money?  Not a damn thing, really.  Most of that debt went to pay for people who are already retired. In other words, your grandparents are borrowing money, spending it, and passing the bill onto you.

I know you’re a generous group. You want to help. You believe in this country, and you’re willing to sacrifice to make it stronger.

We all are.  That’s a common trait of Americans.

But how much can you bear?  How much of a debt burden can your generation really handle?

On top of Washington’s $15 trillion in debt and $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities, most states hold hundreds of billions or more in combined debt and future pension obligations.  Those aren’t your pensions, but the pensions of people in older generations.

Well, you weren’t asking for all that debt. Now you’re stuck with it.

Again, how much more can you and our society handle? And does it really help anyone for the government to make promises it can’t keep?

Scrooge looked at “Christmas Yet To Come” and saw his horrible death. Unless he changed.

When I look at America’s future, I see the same.

The spirits gave Scrooge the chance to reform, and he took it.

Will you?

Popularity: 1% [?]

A college student asked me a question:  Why join the Tea Party?

He was wondering why anyone would want to associate with people who behaved reprehensibly at two earlier Republican debates.

Here’s how I replied:

Johnny,

Sorry that I’m just getting to this.  I get a lot of email, and sometimes I miss things.

I organized the tea party in St. Louis in 2009. I did so because I’ve seen that governments accumulate power until they crush liberty and freedom. Governments use every means to increase their power over the people.  Most recently, it’s been debt.  

Did you know that you owe about $50,000 in federal debt–in addition to all other debts and taxes? You.  If you get married, you’ll have a combined $100,000.  

You’ll pay that debt in one of three ways:  taxes, inflation, or reduced income.  Either way, you have no chance of out-earning me if you follow my exact career path and work just as hard.  

But that’s just money. What about life and liberty?  

No weak government ever committed a holocaust.  But powerful governments do it all the time.  The Nazis.  The Soviets.  Pol Pot.  Ho Chi Minh. Mao.  Castro.  

Talk to someone who fled one of those regimes.  Learn what happens when all the power, all the police forces, all the taxing and permits and borrowing and judging accumulate to a small group of people.

Hell is what happens.  

Show me what happens when good people, people of character, are free to live their own lives. 

Prosperity.

Were there idiots at those debates?  Sure.  Then again, look at the idiots at OWS encampments, defecating on police cars and raping women. Put 100 people in a room and 5 will lack the ability to form human bonds.  

Do we need police and anti-trust laws and other regulations?  Of course. But we also need a constant and vigorous defense of our liberty. 

That’s why I called for a Tea Party in February 2009, and that’s why I hope you’ll join our little band in St. Louis. We stand on guard for your liberty.  And that’s one of hell of an important job. 

Here’s some other people’s views on Why I Tea Party

Cordially,

Bill Hennessy

Why do you tea party?

Popularity: 2% [?]

The headline on July 15 was knee-slapping funny:

Obama says he’s “ready to move” on debt ceiling.

Really?  The man who dug a deeper debt hole in two years than anyone else did in 8—or 15—is willing to borrow more?

Say it ain’t so.

For those who believe Obama’s some sort of deficit hawk, let’s take a quick stroll down memory.

1. Obama wanted to increase the debt limit by $2.5 trillion in April, and he want no conditions on that increase.  In April 2011, Barack Obama opposed any measures to reduce federal spending.

2. Obama refused to produce a plan. Period. He has no plan for reducing debt. He has no plan for eliminating deficits. He has no plan for creating jobs or helping small business.  He has no plan for anything but golf and party.

3.  Obama says 80 percent of Americans demand a tax increase, though he is incapable of citing any source for that number. In other words, he made it up.

Of course Obama’s ready to move on borrowing more money.  Borrowing is his only plan. His credit card is maxed out, and he wants the limit raised.

Only, this time, there are men and women in Congress who more beholden to the Millennial generation than to Boomers. Like a good banker, this Congress wants the borrower to produce a debt reduction plan before lending another penny.

I’m glad Obama’s finally ready to move on something besides a tee box.  But I won’t be completely satisfied until he moves out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Your FICO score is a number between 380 and 820 (or something like that) that banks use to determine your credit worthiness.  The higher your FICO score, the better.

But that’s not what I’m talking about here.

I’m talking about your FICA score.

Your FICA score is the minimum payment on your federal loan.

You didn’t know you had a federal loan?  You do.

If you’re 18 years old, you owe the federal government about $46,000.  That’s before your take out your first student loan. 

You can see your FICA score on your very first pay stub. 

The good news:  you should earn enough in your lifetime to pay off this $48,000 loan that my generation and my dad’s took out on your behalf.

The bad news: we keep borrowing more against your loan.  You’ll never be able to earn money as fast as we can borrow it.

Your best bet? Here’s two rules for getting out of other people’s debt:

1.  Don’t trust anyone who tells you that you’ll be better off deeper in government debt.

2.  Don’t trust people born before 1982, since we’re the ones using identity theft to live richer lives and leave you poor.

And look at your FICA score every payday.  It’ll remind you of Rules 1 and 2 above.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Why not?

Kids have a clean slate when it comes to credit scores.  Sure, they don’t have a long history, but you can help with that. 

And you can buy that 56-inch 3D LED TV you’ve been craving.  In a few months, you might even be able to buy a new car—on your kid’s credit.

Best of all, you really don’t need to pay it off.  Let your kids pay that loan.

Think about it: most kids rack up a ton of college debt. They borrow and borrow to go to college.  And they can’t even eliminate school loans with bankruptcy.

They can get out of the loan for your Hummer, though.  And if they love you, they’ll be happy to help.

Besides, you need the Hummer to haul the kids and their friends around to malls and soccer practice, right? 

Plus you’re establishing their credit for them.

Only one problem: pretending to be your kids by stealing their identity is identity theft.  And sort of like financial molestation.

So why isn’t federal borrowing a crime? 

The US government has borrowed $14+ trillion using my Social Security number and yours.  The same government has bribed older generations to buy their silence—even their complicity.

Worse, most of this debt has been charged to the accounts of Millennials.  And their kids. 

Where’s the outrage?

Thomas Jefferson showed appropriate fury at the notion of borrowing to benefit the present generation at the expense of future generations.

I sincerely believe… that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

and

Then I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater that may be paid during the course of its own existence.

If you were born after 1982 (Millennial Generation), I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. How do you feel about entering the workforce almost $50,000 in debt for things no one every asked you about?

Popularity: 2% [?]