Pay Society First

Maybe it is time we started looking at the overall national budget and redesigned our priorities.

Military spending is the largest item in the United States budget. The military industrial complex and corporate interests have been the beneficiaries of “trickle down” economics and the tax cuts over the last 30 years. It has worked perfectly – like a vacuum cleaner – cleaning out the wallets of the middle class and the national treasury.

It is time we put people first. This is a democracy after all (isn't it)?

As a nation we put military spending, corporate interests, the elite and special interests ahead of the interests of society at large. Instead of waiting for the “rising tide” to lift all boats, we can lift all boats as a matter of policy by paying society first.

Health Care, Education, Job Training, Childcare, long term care, secure retirements for all – the things we all worry about – what if we as a matter of policy - funded these items first?

Financial planners coach individuals starting a savings plan a concept known as “paying yourself first”. It means, quite literally, setting up an automatic savings and long term investment accounts that are the first expenses of the month – saving becomes the first priority. Then, using the left over resources, to determine discretionary spending. It is an indirect way of budgeting.

Maybe it is time on a national level that we “pay society first”. We FIRST take care of the societal needs. Things like infrastructure, education, health care for all, mental health care, drug prevention and rehabilitation, lifetime job training programs, secure retirement through enhanced social security and child and adult care for working people.

First, all the programs that allow us to have a healthy and productive society.

By creating a minimum bottom to our society – one that no one would ever have to worry about falling through – we could create real security for everyone - always.

Instead, we allow our political leaders to choose the route of “fear”. We are so afraid of other nations that we drastically outspend and overspend every other nation on the planet in military spending. More than half our total annual budget on assured destruction.

We allow our leaders to terrorize us by using fairy tale language like the “axis of evil” – to justify the bloated military budget. They manipulate us through the use of fear about countries that are substantially weaker than us. Countries that do not have “one single nuclear weapon” are used to “terrorize” us.

Most Americans have never looked at the national budget and would be shocked to learn that we spend more than half of our total national budget on the Military. Then, in order to continue to justify this over bloated military budget, we allow our politicians to create a “perpetual war”. The “war on terror” has no clear end – no clear enemy – and can be endlessly recreated, redesigned and reinvented.

No WMD’s? That’s ok, we are creating democracy.

No Nuclear plan? Well how about “potential knowledge”. Now we are not just the policeman of the world – we are the thought police.

It’s not the “Iraq” war it is the “terror” war. Used as a power grab by military and oil interests to grab the national resources – the people’s treasury - and used to justify keeping an unbelievable arsenal of power – used for one thing – destruction.

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