I’ve been marveling over the president’s contention that unless we spend a ton more money, we will soon be bankrupt. I like the way David Harsanyi puts it in his column with the appropriate title of “All the president’s mendacity“:
President Barack Obama grimly warned America this week that if his health care plans fail, the nation will go “bankrupt.”
Sure, adding another trillion-dollar entitlement program to our $12 trillion debt may seem like a counterintuitive way to stave off economic ruin, but who are we to argue? The president’s got smarts.
Yeah, and smart people can get themselves into much bigger economic messes than dumber people. That’s because dumb people are generally smart enough to realize that you can’t spend what you don’t have, and that more spending does not prevent bankruptcy. Most dumb people would probably think more spending makes bankruptcy more likely.
Wrong!
Smart people know better. They believe that if you’re facing bankruptcy, you can simply spend your way out! It’s the principle of counterintuitive money management.
If you’re smart, and you’ve maxed out your credit card, the thing to do is go get more credit cards, and when you’re maxed out on them, get more and max them out! You’ll never be bankrupt that way, because you will simply owe more and more, and then owe more so that you can then owe more and more! Likewise, if a check bounces, the smart thing to do is to immediately write another check (on another account if possible), and then if that bounces, simply write another one, and so on. And why not? As the president says, that’s the only way to avoid bankruptcy.
But isn’t that illegal? Ah, smart people don’t worry about things like laws either. Laws and prisons are for dumb people. Besides, smart people get to work for the government, so they can make sure that only dumb people have to pay.
Being smart means being unaccountable while making the dumb people accountable.
The moral lesson is that it’s smart to be smart!
Comments
4 responses to “The smart way to avoid bankruptcy”
With the present rate of decline in what US$ will buy, it may be true that spending as many $ as possible as quickly as possible is the best plan. To avoid bankruptcy one must spend the $ on hard goods, not entitlements.
I don’t know if I’ve linked this here before, but FrnakJ explains it all in a very scientificy way.
http://www.imao.us/archives/001171.html#001171
It’s a special state of stupidity that only the most intelligent can reach. To give an example, let’s say there is a tree lying in one’s path. If it were a simple creature approaching the tree, such as a dog, it would walk around the tree, not knowing of any other option. But, a very intelligent person in the postoperational thought stage could, using his vast intelligence, explain away the existence of the tree and walk right into it. A great intellect is required to be that dumb.
Are you saying that you can’t drink your way to sobriety? You can’t boast your way to humility? You can’t f–k your way to virginity?
Like my brilliant nephew who won the National Merit Scholarship, attended an Ivy League college, with a double major in math & philosophy, graduates Summa Cum-Laude, and now…ta da…at 47 years of age is working at Wal-Mart, in the paint department & hardware, graveyard, living in a single wide in Oklahoma, but still fantasizes that he will write THE sequel to The Lord of The Rings.
At least he didn’t end up the Unabomber, or President.