The Bill Always Comes Due

We all have a tendency to believe the way things are today is the way they will be tomorrow and the age we are, we will still be next year. Life has a nasty habit of finally convincing us the fallacy of those assumptions. The one fallacy that we all will cling to the end is refusing to believe that there are no free lunches.The world turned in 1980 as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan began to promote the expansion of the private sector and the shrinkage of the government sector and in order to make this turn were willing to accept massive budget deficits to help in the transition. Then to try to restore fiscal sanity to our rising national debt George Herbert Walker Bush was willing to accept some tax increases along with spending restraints to make progress. Then in the 90’s Bill Clinton accepted further increases and restraints and lo and behold, produced a budget surplus and there was chatter about reducing the national debt.However, the phrase, “prosperity lasts forever” began to take hold and we’ve spent the last 25 years reducing tax revenue and increasing expenditures to the degree that the prodigal son would turn green with envy. So far, it’s all been good with booming increases in the value of all assets which the baby boom owns and the younger generations can never afford. If there are no free lunches, it’s important to be gone from the table by the time the waiter brings the bill.