In cases like that do we respond like Pollyanna, who believes that all things will turn out well as we go on about our lives as we always have? Or are we like a ship in a storm where the crew begins to dump cargo overboard? In the latter case, the crew believed that this cargo was important or they would not have brought the items on board at all. They continue to dispose of the cargo until the ship is no longer in danger.
In times of financial stress you may decide that you need only 1 car instead of 2. You start to think creatively on how to manage that realizing that it will be inconvenient, even painful at times. You may also decide that you can ditch your cable TV service. You may have thought that that was essential before. But If you have lost your job and you see a looming mortgage payment coming soon, would you cut back to 1 car or ditch your cable or allow your house to be warmer in Summer and cooler in Winter if it meant that you could keep your house?
Pollyanna, would continue as before believing that all items are essential until finally someone comes along to evict her from her house and take her car away in repossession. Pollyanna trusts that others will be kind to her and others will make a way for her so that really nothing terrible can happen. Pollyanna does not look down the road and see disaster coming. She does not change today's behavior to avoid the future disaster.
Anyone who has experienced financial trouble knows about these choices and wishes that they had started sooner making changes in what they believed were essential before they were lost all together.
Right now our Gov't is in financial trouble. But too many politicians responding to their constituents are not being allowed to make the cuts necessary to save our country. Our spending is now $1.5 trillion greater each year than our income and is not sustainable. A debate rages in Washington about whether Congress will vote to raise the limit so that the gov't can borrow more. But too many in Congress will not cut spending to bring our budget into balance. We must stop borrowing to fund our lifestyles.
The fact is that if we do not voluntarily cut our spending now we will be forced by outside forces to cut them in the future because no one will lend us money. Remember also that when the gov't borrows money to operate, they are lying to the country about what gov't costs to operate. If you will not own up to cutting and cutting big then you are a Pollyanna believing that the future is bright and rosy and that somehow the gov't has a pot of money somewhere that will make everything alright. That does not happen in real life. Lots of people have lost their homes as a result of too much Pollyanna thinking.
If we don't voluntarily get our house in order, others will do it for us, just like a bank foreclosing on our house.
So here are some items that were once considered essential but should be considered essential no longer : Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Dept of Transportation, Dept of Health and Human Services, Nat'l Endowment for the Arts. There are undoubtedly parts of the defense budget that we can live without as well. What else can you name?
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