Let's take simple look at the financial condition of the US Federal Government since nobody in the US is talking much about it. We’ll also take a look at how this is affecting you, me, and society as a whole.
We'll start on page 49, titled 'statement of net cost', which is an interesting way to title a financial statement. Right from the beginning we’re assuming that every department loses money. Most departments don’t actually generate income, so they take your money through taxes in order to pay for them.
The next thing I find surprising is the long list of governmental departments. There is a department for everything, and this list isn’t even the entire list; see line “all other entities”. The average person on the street probably could name less than 6 of them. Ask them what that department does and I'm guessing they'd have no clue. To be honest, I'm one of these people. (Nowhere in my government-provided education did I learn how government actually works. Could there be a suspicious reason for this or are they just not very good at educating?)
Let’s look a smaller example that myself and the average person are familiar with. The US postal service (USPS) in 2017 took in $68.7B and spent $71.9B, meaning they lost $3.2 billion dollars. Many users of the US postal service notice that it is disorganized and slow. This is one particular department that generates revenue and functions like a regular business, and it still can’t support itself.
Let’s compare this to a private business that does the same thing as the USPS. In 2017, FedEx made $4.6B, and UPS made $7.1B both before taxes. Shutting down the USPS would be an immediate and easy way to save taxpayers $6.8B per year… and we wouldn’t be sacrificing delivery service because FedEx or UPS would simply do what the USPS was doing, but they would be saving society billions of dollars per year. This is one example of private business efficiency.
Overall in 2017, the total amount of money all of these departments cost the US was $4,533,900,000,000. $4.5339 trillion dollars. The existence of the US Federal government in 2017 cost $4.5339 trillion dollars. There are close to 326 million people in the US. That is $13,900 for every human in the country. For a poverty stricken family of 4, that is $55,602 per year… That is probably more than they are making. If you think government is helping the poor, you have to wonder if that $55,602/year wouldn’t help them a lot more. Is government worth that price?
Another common financial metric is net worth. Assets – liabilities = net worth. Basically, what you own minus what you owe. Add up the value of your cash, bank accounts, home value, car value, real estate, etc and subtract it by all the debt you owe and you have your net worth.
In 2017, the US Federal Government had $3.48 trillion in assets compared to $23.9 trillion in liabilities for a net worth of negative $20.4 trillion. Furthermore, nearly 40% of the assets are student loans. The government considers a generation of debt-burdened millennials its assets.
So on top of costing every human $13,900/year, each person is also responsible for $62,577 of debt. In our poverty-stricken family of four example, this is $55,602/year and a $250,308 pile of debt. If you think government is helping the poor, consider that government is actually making everybody poorer. If you think government is making everybody safer, ask yourself, is it working and is it worth the cost?
These facts are bewildering.
How is it that government can continue on? If a person or business had these finances, they would have gone bankrupt long, long ago; and probably convicted of many criminal counts as well. Going bankrupt is the best thing that could have happened. It would have prevented many, many years of trillion dollar losses. Society would have been many trillions of dollars richer if government had just failed early on. The single greatest source of waste in our lives is government. So how is it that they have not failed?
There are two factors that play a role.
- The Federal Reserve was created in 1913, and has been most recently used to lend the federal government unlimited amounts of money. It creates money out of thin air and loans it to the federal government.
- In the 1970’s, the removal of the gold standard meant our dollar bills were no longer tied gold. This meant our financial system was no longer grounded to reality.
Private businesses and individuals do not have the ability to make the rules. Since government can enforce its own rules, and there is no good way for its citizens to keep it in check, government can evolve into a cancer. (See my article https://steemit.com/government/@weshonkomp/our-malignant-government-the-cancer-in-our-economy )
These numbers are not theoretical, they are reality. One way or another, you and I are responsible for all of this money, whether you’re paying it directly or indirectly. If humanity is going to thrive in abundance, we need to first cut out the waste. Government in its current form is the single biggest source of waste; it is a cancerous tumor that we carry thinking that it is necessary to our survival. The truth is that it actually threatens our survival. The more money and power we give it, the bigger and more wasteful it becomes.
Financial records:
https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/finrep/fr/17frusg/FinancialStatements_2017.pdf
