Back in the old days when miners ventured deep into the darkness to extract coal, they use to bring a canary in a cage with them. Since carbon monoxide was colorless, odorless and tasteless they needed another way to detect that they were about to be poisoned. Here's a clue - don't get too attached to the canary. Since the bird was much more susceptible to the effects of carbon monoxide than a man, they knew that when the bird was dead - they were about to join him. Just enough time to make a harried and not so graceful exit to the surface. There are all kinds of "canaries in the mine". The most recent is Greece. You may have heard that Greece is about to go bankrupt. Their debt to GNP ratio is so out of whack, their entitlements so over the top, they are in serious fear of defaulting. And Greece isn't alone. They're just the first. Italy, Germany and Great Britain are in the waiting room. And the United States is in the parking lot. How does this happen? Well, first of all it begins with a blind faith and trust in government. Remember, these politicians are public servants - just like the mailman who delivers your electric bill. Your mailman may be a swell guy but do you want him running the economy? The biggest difference is that your mailman can't satiate you with pork barrel spending and promise huge entitlements that can't possibly be paid for. Well, in Greece the entitlements are really huge. For instance, you can retire at age 53. From that one bit of information you can just imagine how fast and furious it goes downhill from here. When the government decided that changes needed to be made in their spending and entitlement programs, many Greeks revolted in the streets as though smashing windows and overturning cars was a solid "Plan B". Imagine telling Americans that Social Security recipients in the future will have to expect reduced benefits and work longer to get them. Or that Medicare entitlements will have to be trimmed. You may not have to imagine it. The truth is that decades of spending money we don't have will force such measures to be taken. It wont be easy or popular. And the "Big Government" types will surely use it as en excuse to expand governmental powers even more - as if the same people who created this mess are actually capable of cleaning it up. If that argument held any validity wouldn't they have done it already? Offering sweet entitlements to constituents may be a great avenue to re-election but a hell of a lousy way to run an economy. We've been drunk on seemingly free government booze for too long and the morning after is on the horizon. The founding fathers (yes, the old white guys with powdered wigs) had it right over 200 years ago. They warned against over spending and financial reliance from the federal government. They wrote that such public debt would strangle our economy,burden future generations and be a threat to our very liberty. Jefferson wrote that each generation had a responsibility to hand over the country debt free to the generation that followed - that to do otherwise was robbery. He was right. I doubt many Americans will take to the streets in violence such as the Greeks have done but they wont be happy. They'll look to find someone to blame and there will be no shortage of culpable villains. But perhaps we'll be honest enough to take a look in the mirror first. Our national apathy and neglect as citizens to hold elected officials accountable have made this mess possible. And we have grown accustom to the generous benefits that have been lavished upon us - pretending that all those programs we love are paid for by someone else. No matter how you look at it, the canary looks quite ill. The question is - can we get him enough fresh air lest he takes his last breath?
