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It’s March Madness, Baby!!

By Claude Bohn

“Beware the ides of March”

          The recent kick-off of that most popular of American spectator sports puts a whole new twist on the term “March Madness”. No, I’m not referring to basketball, but to war!

What could possibly be better? This season, we have two sporting events being presented for our amusement and stupefaction - pick your team and place your bets! All of the armchair generals and wanna-be coaches are currently in a state of mad ecstasy.

As with anything else, though, “games” – of whatever variety - are not without their costs, and consequences. With basketball, there are the costs of organizing, supplying and supporting a team – uniforms, equipment, transportation, coach’s salaries, etc. Most of these costs are borne by ticket-purchasing fans and network advertisers. This is as it should be. Let those who wish to “participate” fund the activity voluntarily, and with their own money. Those who do not wish to partake are free to keep their money in their pockets, turn off the TV, and devote their limited resources elsewhere. Democracy in action!

However, the same cannot be said of that other “spectator sport” – war. Here too there are the unavoidable costs – for organizing and supplying the “team” – and the inescapable consequences.  But, contrary to basketball, these costs and consequences will be borne by fan and non-fan alike - enforced, if need be, at the point of a gun! And, as if to add insult to injury, that force will be administered by folks that you pay to “protect” you. Tyranny in action!

Unlike basketball, the costs and consequences of war can be immense, and incalculable. The costs of this current war - actually, a mere battle, in the “permanent war” against terror – are being estimated as running into the billions of Federal Reserve notes. But that cost is insignificant, in comparison with the costs associated with rebuilding (and restructuring?) a defeated foe. Early estimates have been given as possibly 50 billions of Federal Reserve notes a year! For how many years no one can (or will) say.

The current “war rally” on the stock market aside, this country, for all practical effect, is essentially bankrupt. Deficit estimates are in the billions; and this without the costs of war figured in! Our national debt (the sum of all past deficits) currently stands at nearly a mind-numbing 6.5 TRILLION FRNs – and growing! And we are presently in the grips of a recession or, possibly, a depression – determined by whether you are still employed or not – and the president is promising tax cuts? Where will these vast sums of “money” come from? Well, let me tell you. They will come from the same place that ALL of our so-called money came from; they will simply be “created” (“borrowed”) from out of thin air! Neat trick, if you can get away with it.

So much for the costs, which will be passed on to future generations – our children, grandchildren, and theirs. What of the likely consequences of this “game”? Well, for starters, a lower standard of living for our progeny seems practically guaranteed. The debt – the accumulation of all past deficits – promises to continue to grow (What comes after trillions?). It (the debt) can never be repaid, because, to do so would be to destroy the “money” supply, which is based on that debt; but the interest on that debt will have to be paid! The greater the debt the greater the interest on that debt; its simple arithmetic, folks! Which, means, taxes  - the only way available to pay that interest – will have to increase as well!

But, hey, relax! And enjoy “the game”! There’s nothing better than watching a good “game” on someone else’s nickel! Is there? Likely, it won’t be you who pays the piper; it will be your children, and their children. They will pay, not only in terms of higher taxation and lower standards of living, but quite possibly, in terms of increased terror and/or of living in third world poverty and despair, when the inevitable consequences of all this madness finally catches up to them. Sit them down tonight, and explain it all to them; they deserve that much, at least. And be sure to tell them: “Don’t say I didn’t leave you anything.”

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