Borrowing Money

Borrowing Money was Originally Posted on February 14, 2012 by lavarock

Recently I mentioned a website called Prosper.Com where you can fund ongoing and new projects for deserving people who are short of cash. You review their financials and what they want to use it for, and decide if they can pay it back. You really don’t want to loan somebody money if they are in financial trouble, or do you?

There is a loan proposal out there where this guy wants to do remodeling, start some new projects and help neighbors. Sounds great but here, buried in the fine print are his numbers.

He has a budget of of $38,000 and income of only $29,000. He is spending 31% more than he makes!

If you think that is bad, he also is carring $150,000 in credit card debt, that he needs to pay off. That credit card debt is 5 times what he is bringing in!

Would you loan him any money to continue this?

I am guessing that you answered NO.

Yet if you add 8 zeros to each number you now have the meat of the Presidents Budget just published. ABC News put those numbers in perspective so that you can understand.

The budget calls for more taxes and less cuts. The President says that HE did not create this debt, which is partially true, yet he is not attacking it, just adding to it and passing it along. Passing it along to us, our children and their children.

The President supplied his budget. That does not mean that it will pass. Congress hss the abilty to fund and de-fund many of the items requested.

I’m all for all sides to get together and decide to work on the problem together. However, almost half of the people involved want to spend more and half want to cut more. We need to be cutting lots more than we spend.

Want some graphs? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

I know that plenty of people want that money. In many cases, when the government stops funding something people care about, they get out and rally support and raise the money themselves. That is similar to letting the public VOTE on what they want the government to fund, rather than voting for people who decide behind closed doors. Often those decisions involve sending money to their cronies or home states in the hopes they will be reelected.

Remember that a politicians main job is to get reelected. They start raising that money as soon as they get elected. You rarely hear them say that they will stay in office 1 term and make a difference. After just a couple terms they are guaranteed a constant flow of retirement money for the rest of their lives, whether they need it or not.

I would not mind voting on where my money was spent. How about you?