Last week, I forced you into a discussion of what and who is too big to fail. I should apologize, but instead, I’m going to, sort of, stick to that topic for one more round.
I find it rather frightening the way people, companies and countries are being allowed to stack up debt without any repercussions being felt, other than by those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladders.
Chalk it up to advancing years if you wish, but I recall raised eyebrows when someone mentioned mortgages of $500,000. That kind of money bought you a castle. Now it buys you 400 square feet in Vancouver or a starter home in Calgary.
Countries used to measure their debt in millions; the larger countries in hundreds of millions. Now it’s billions and yes, trillions. China, I believe, is over a dozen trillion dollars in debt and the United States pretty well quit counting. Neither one of them appears worried. I would like to know why? And don’t ask how much a trillion is, you would never comprehend, neither does Warren Buffet, Billy Gates or any of those emirs. I left the boat at a million in terms of understanding the magnificence of debt or richness.
One of the three or four power companies in Ontario just added another $6 billion to their debt load to fix four nuclear reactors, so they won’t spill their toxic guts all over Toronto. They know they can’t pay that bill.
Greece, as noted last week, dances with the debt-devil on a daily basis, and only their poorest pay a price.
Norway is saving billions. All the rest of us are spending money we’ll never have and have no hope of ever getting, yet we all keep fooling one another into thinking we’re very viable on the economic front. And I suppose we all are, as long as nobody pulls the proverbial economic reality plug.
Who really cares if a two-bedroom bungalow with a teeny mountain view in Vancouver sells for $2.2 million. Somebody who believes they are rich, will buy it and sell it for $2.4 million to somebody else, who believes they, too, are rich.
Printing cash, is going out of fashion. The presses can’t keep up. Never mind, just keep tabulating if you care to. Nobody is making more than the minimum down payment and basic monthly repayment anyway. We aren’t interested in reducing debt, (federal or ours), let alone deficit.
It’s all too strangely weird to me right now. It’s as if fiscal responsibility has flown out the window in favour of politicial expediency and a “me to,” and “right now” attitude among those of us who keep score by using material possessions.
In the meantime, there are a few billion people scratching around this globe who know nothing of wealth, who wouldn’t know what a Canadian five dollar bill looks like and who couldn’t care less. These few billion are simply looking for potable water, something to eat, a place to go to the bathroom and a place to sleep … for one night. Tomorrow will be the same. They don’t have to worry about paying for electricity because they have none. No computer to crash, no gas tank to fill, no sneakers to tie, no mortgage to pay (or ignore) and no place to go.
How do they keep score in their lives? Perhaps just staying alive means as much or more to them then the scorekeeping we do for ourselves. Wanna bet a trillion dollars on it?
