Ron on the latest congressional spending spree.

Well, they done gone and dood it . . . flushed another trillion or two, mostly pork, down the toilet for no good reason other than to buy votes in the next election . . . trillions that we don’t have, by the way.

Finding the exact amount of the US national debt is kinda tricky – somewhere in the 27 trillion neighborhood. The GNP (gross national product) isn’t even close to that; in fact, it’s several trillion lower, around 19 or 20 trillion.

So what does that mean? Hell, I donno. What I do know is that if all the money, all the wealth and property of all the rich people in the country were seized and applied to the debt to pay it off, it’d come laughably short of the total.

Most people haven’t a clue what the national debt is, or who it is that we’re in debt TO. We hear about borrowing money from China and all that, but close to ¾ of the government’s debt is held by US citizens and various domestic institutions, such as banks.

Only around 30% is held by foreign governments or corporations. Yes, China does hold the largest share amongst foreign entities, a little under 6%. Japan is the next biggest with around 5.5%.

Arithmetically speaking, then, the US owes foreign governments and agencies something on the order of 8 trillion and the rest to its own citizens and institutions. And there’s only one way we can rid ourselves of it:

“Hey, guys – you know that money we owe you? Well, we ain’t gonna pay it. What’re you gonna do about it, huh?”

That’s exactly what Hitler did with Germany’s self-feeding post-war debt set up by the punitive Treaty of Versailles. For German citizens the explanation was that it was a matter of patriotism for the fatherland, a donation. For other debtor nations, it was “You can’t get blood out of a stone, so fuck off. And besides, if you get whiney about it, we’ll just kick your ass and steal YOUR treasury.” Which they did anyway.

There’s really no difference between the liberals and conservatives in government where taxpayer assets are concerned. They both spend money profligately as if there’s no tomorrow; they just spend it on different things.

People don’t really understand money anyway. To most people it’s a sort of symbol, a medium of barter, traditionally representing their labor or skill or talent in exchange for food or the services of others, or just stuff they’d like to have ‘cause they saw somebody else with one.

Originally money was tangible, like salt or livestock. The word salary comes from the Latin word for “salt,” and pecuniary comes from the word pecus, meaning “cow.”

As societies became larger and more involved with neighboring cultures, gold and silver took the place of cattle and rock salt. Still a tangible medium, something you could literally sink your teeth into and easily carry around in a pouch tied to your belt.

But the stuff you keep in your wallet to pay your bar tab or get a ticket for a ball game . . . that’s not real money – it’s currency, basically a government’s SUBSTITUTE for money.

Long time ago currency was redeemable in whatever precious metal a government kept in its treasury as the standard for money. But today you try to get silver, or gold, or even copper from the US treasury for your Franklins and you’ll be told to go away and sober up. You might wind up getting lead instead of gold.

A government can print as much currency as it likes to keep things running, but as the total number of bills in circulation grows and grows, each one is worth less and less. No, I’m not gonna explain why – should be obvious, kinda like supply and demand.

In today’s world, we don’t deal in dollars; we don’t deal in hundreds of dollars; we don’t even deal in thousands . . . or millions . . . or BILLIONs of dollars. You’ve heard it before . . . “a trillion here, a trillion there, and sooner or later you’re talkin real money.”

Shi’ite! Nobody can visualize a trillion of anything, much less greenback dollars. So when Congress passes legislation giving pallets of cash to Iran or Pakistan, or issues “relief” checks to illegal aliens, or loads up legislation with pork, it’s all just a board game to them, imaginary money, theoretical spending.

Your currency isn’t a receipt for your labor or your service or your talent; it’s a tool for politicians to promote themselves to their constituents to keep them voting for them in future elections. It’s all about credit, debt, the “when my ship comes in” syndrome.

The expression “watch your p’s and q’s” originated in British pubs when blokes went in for a drink and asked the barkeep to run a tab for them to pay later when they got paid. When the tab got big, he’d remind ‘em of their debt. Over time it came to mean, “behave yourself” or “mind the rules” or “don’t forget your obligations.”

Somebody needs to ‘splain that to Congress: you can’t just keep hittin that ATM or swipin that MasterCard forever, ‘ cuz sooner or later somebody’s gonna send Vito and Carmine over to your place to adjust your attitude and break your knees for you.

I think we’re on the cusp of doing completely away with cash anyway. One day it’ll be ONLY credit . . . anonymous intangible ones and zeroes flitting around in the cloud. That way Big Brother can keep track of ALL your spending, ALL your nasty little self-indulgences, ALL your profligacy . . . and when he decides you’re out of line, he’ll cut you off like a heroin addict without methadone.

But before that happens, there’s gonna be a major “reset,” some kind of “adjustment” to the money supply, some kind of “pay the fiddler for the dancin y’all did” since the last time the budget was balanced about 20 years ago and we were STILL almost 6 TRILLION in debt.

Mind them Ps and Qs, “Honorable” boys and girls. Money don’t grow on trees, y’know.