They Can’t Balance A Checkbook
I’ve mentioned before that the military was receiving dunning notices from their utility companies, but I was struck by this quote in the NBC article, Budget woes force Army bases to cut services:
But military analyst Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution said money management seems to be the larger problem. The Defense Department spends about as much on maintenance and operations as it does on weapons and personnel combined, he said, so there should be more than enough for the bills.
“It makes me worry if the Pentagon can’t do its accounting well enough to find money for its electric bills,” he said. “It just boggles my mind a little bit.”
This plays to the fact that the Shrubbery walked into a donut shop recently and had to borrow money from an aide for a snack – the wealthy don’t carry money, that’s why expensive purses are so small. They don’t worry about it, so they don’t actually track their spending. CEOs do the same thing, which is why they don’t notice when their corporations are heading down.
Money has never been a problem for these people, so they have no experience managing it. While some people are balancing health care, food, and rent, the wealthy just spend money when they have to. If you have never worried about running out, you are not apt to worry where it goes. The fact that other people may need money to stay in business, or to stay alive, just doesn’t occur to them.
2 comments
Bush: “Let them eat cake donuts.”
Access to unlimited wealth changes the fundamental character of persons and institutions alike. No one is immune: if I never had to worry about money, I too would manage not to understand poverty or limited means, or staying within a budget, or finding ways to cut expenses. That is why I believe that even in the most capitalistic, competition-oriented society, there is no fundamental right to unlimited wealth. I believe old Ben Franklin might have agreed with me, considering his statements on what we owe the society we live in. But I doubt Bush remembers any Founders’ statements that might threaten his own access to boundless wealth. It has perverted his character, as much as any other single aspect of his life.
This is the problem with eliminating the estate tax, it discourages innovation. Money must circulate to do any good. In most systems stasis is death.