If I were an American 12-year-old right now, I would get on the web, set up a new site called something like www.boston_tea_party2008.com and start up an online petition. The petition will be to designate a representative to go to Washington and appear before Congress– with a phalanx of media, of course– to announce that the future taxpayers of America– today’s children and young people—do not agree to pay to bail out this generation from their own folly. They will not pay for the war. They will not pay for tax cuts to the rich. They will not pay for obscenely over-priced fighter planes.
Barack Obama does not have $750,000,000,000 and neither does George Bush. The U.S. government does not have this money either. The U.S. government has done something rather shocking. They borrowed the money from the 12-year-olds… without their consent. Yes, they are going to give the money to the big banks and the Detroit 3, and then they are going to pass the bill on to future taxpayers. They’re charging it all to our children.
No 12-year-old voted for Obama or Bush. They didn’t vote for Clinton either or anybody else who contributed to this mess. So why the hell should they pay for it? Why on earth should they simply accept that they are on the hook for this money? Since they didn’t vote for it, I think they have every right in the world to walk away from it.
I think this idea could really gather some momentum. It should start at a local school level with grade nine students meeting at lunch to elect a representative. All city and all county representatives would follow, and would meet at the state capital to elect national reps. They meet in Washington, with some cool adult chaperones, of course, like maybe Kristen Stewart and Bruce Springsteen, and then they march to the Capitol buildings and announce that the future tax-payers will not pay this bill.
The mechanism for doing this might be complicated. They could sell off a couple of aircraft carriers, and some national parks, and the statue of liberty. Might not be enough. They might have to simply garnishee it from social security. How do you like that?
While they’re at it, they should also announce they are not going to fight any more wars on behalf of old feeble rich white men anymore either. Any future war would have to have congressional support from more than half of all the black or Hispanic or female members. How ’bout that?
Added 2011-09: Okay, I’m just saying. In essence, the government is borrowing money to buy a house for themselves but will also be available to the 12-year-olds to live in. When they are old enough, they will have to pay their share of the mortgage.
But it is also true that if you took away the insane massive tax cuts given to the wealthiest people in the country and the corporations, you could easily pay for all of the government programs and the wars and the weapons that are reasonably affordable. What I object to is that while soldiers and middle-income earners make sacrifices for the war– big ones– the rich are actually making out like bandits with reductions to their tax burden.
That is obscene.
And the truth is, given a choice, the 12-year-olds will demand to live in the house that they don’t want to pay for. I’m just saying….
What would actually happen if the 12-year-olds of America could do this? Revoke their obligations to the present generation of borrowers? Who would loan the government money if it seemed the the next generations would simply revoke their obligations?
If only. The lenders would simply destroy the U.S. economy. Think it can’t be done? The Americans threatened to do it to the British and French over the Suez crisis in 1956. [Read the section under “Financial Pressures”.]
