Tax our way out?

One of the best pieces of advice I was given early in my career was to live as if you did not just receive a raise.

It is the American way to spend the money that is available. While that is not the wisest thing to do sometimes that cannot be helped. Young families and individuals right out of college need their entire pay check just to make ends meet. Inevitably a person gets a raise and buys a new car or moves into a bigger house starting the cycle of overspending. Between the first raise and the second raise it is unlikely that the new car or the house is paid off, but the need for bigger and better escalates as the years go by.

Enter the New American way.

At some point the individual is no longer spending the money they are making but they are now spending credit on what they “will be making”. We are seeing now what happens when there is a job loss or a pay cut.

The government has been living beyond its means for a generation and they want more from the American people. But where will that money go? Will it be used to pay off the debt that we owe? Doubtful, the raise will be used for pet programs and social services under the guise of job creation and jumpstarting the economy.

Until we elect responsible officials to office any raise that we give will be spent to up the lifestyle of those in office.