Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Highlands Today > News

Enough Already

Roy Dettwiler

Published: March 10, 2009

I lay awake last night thinking of the wonderful achievements we have made during my lifetime.
In my childhood some of us dreamed of some day falling heir to one million dollars. Why, if I had a million dollars I would never have to work. I could live in comfort all my life off the interest from that $1,000,000 and could be buried in luxury. There was no expectation of ever achieving such a goal but one could dream, couldn't one?
One could also dream that the representatives we sent to D.C (aka District of Colombia) would be humble people whose goal would be to serve the people back home to the best of their ability. They did not deal in very large sums of money.
Now fast forward, if you will, to my middle years. The inhabitants of D.C. or commuters there were beginning to feel that they were entitled to stay in government and to deal with ever increasing sums of the taxpayers' money.
Were we dealing now in billions of dollars? Can you imagine a billion dollars? It is very simple on paper. It is simply a thousand million. (A billion here and a billion there, oh well.) If the taxpayers didn't provide enough, we'll just raise the taxes!
Now fast forward, if you dare, to my old age. Billions of dollars are no longer enough! The inhabitants of D.C. (aka the "Directors of Catastrophe") are talking now of trillions of dollars! How much is a trillion? (out of sight dude!)
Taxes are not enough, so now we are into deficits. If the deficits are into the trillions, who is going to pay for them? Pity our poor grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. They are heading for bankruptcy.
All of you people out there who can't even imagine a trillion dollars,  stand up and scream "Enough already! Let's come back down to Earth!"
Roy Dettwiler
Avon Park