Scott Liddicoat

No one should ever make the claim that we’re a selfish generation of Americans.  We simply have more problems than any other generation.

We’ve certainly turned to government to try to fix more problems than any other generation.  We can’t say that government has fixed many of them.  And some problems have definitely gotten worse. 

But to pay for these government efforts, we’ve placed more taxes on our activities than any other generation.  Federal tax collections are the highest they’ve ever been.

That still isn’t enough money to fix our problems, though.  So, beyond federal tax revenues, we spend all of our excess Social Security “contributions.”  These are the trillions that have been paid into the system through the years that weren’t immediately paid out to Social Security recipients. 

These trillions could have been saved, and placed in trust for our retirement years.  Instead they’ve been spent and won’t be available for us in years to come.  Because we have more problems than any other generation, we’ve left it to future Americans to pay our Social Security benefits when we retire.

This is similar to the Medicare burden we’ve left to our children.  This medical care program has never been adequately funded by Medicare taxes.  Promising benefits for which it cannot pay, Medicare takes money away from us through our private insurance too. 

However,  we’ve promised ourselves many more trillions in unfunded Medicare benefits in the future.  We’ve left it to Americans who haven’t been born yet to pay these benefits because we have more problems than any other generation.

Unfortunately, that still won’t fix all of our problems.  So we run record trillion dollar-plus deficits, which are added each year to a skyrocketing national debt.  Deficit spending this year will be used for various social assistance, grant, subsidy, and “stimulus” programs.  Since we’re simply creating enormous sums of money out of thin air already, many politicians want to create massive amounts on top of that.  Why worry about thrift or about a budget when there are more problems, and more political and social programs to fund? 

We’re deficit spending on a vast scale already, why not spend a whole lot more?  Because we have more problems than any other generation we’ve decided to leave this staggering debt to our sons, daughters, and grandchildren.

In addition, our problems are so immense that we must spend all the money we can get our hands on right away.  No delays!  There is no time to discuss the possible negative effects of our actions. 

For example, many economists point out that lower taxes would foster economic development.  Higher taxes stifle growth.  We don’t have time for that kind of thinking.  There isn’t even time to discuss whether or not it may be government spending that causes our problems in the first place. 

Our troubles are so overwhelming that there’s no time to consider the limitations placed on government activities established in our country’s legal founding document, the Constitution of the United States.  Our difficulties are so great that we cannot make allowances for any liberty-minded malcontents in the future.  They might not be so willing to foot the bill for our spending decisions today. 

Yes, we are essentially taxing Americans of the future without their consent or representation.  Our founders and revolutionary ancestors believed it was tyrannical for King George to practice taxation without representation.  It was one of the grievances that led to our rebellion against Great Britain.  But that’s not worth thinking about when placed next to the difficulties we have to deal with right now. 

No, we aren’t a selfish generation.  We’ve simply been saddled with more problems than any American generation to come before us.  And plainly, we’ve been burdened with more problems than any generation that will ever come after us.

saltwatertea.org 10/27/25