Illinois Governor Quinn Trying to Raise Taxes 50%

How about cutting spending? No, because no democracy is able to do so. That is the virus, the fatal flaw in our system. We have perhaps 200 years left in our grand experiment unless we find a vaccine for this problem. The good news is that gives us a very long time to figure it out, and we are quite clever. The bad news is we may wait a very long time to do anything about it, making the burden that much greater.

At this writing, Greece is on the edge of bankruptcy and they seem unable to do anything about it, such as (let me think) by cutting spending. Their crisis was triggered by the global downturn, but the fact that they had hidden problems waiting for such a downturn is a bigger concern. Had this not happened today, they would have overextended themselves more, such that only a much smaller downturn would have knocked them down later.

The concern is that Greece is not alone. If the mentality about overspending is, "If Greece is extending their finances this far, why can Portugal, Ireland, Italy or Spain?" (collectively referred to by the unfortunate name PIIGS) and stateside, "If California is doing it, why can't Illinois and other states?" As we've seen with the recent downturn, such clever financing can backfire for everybody at the same time, when there's no strength in the system left to hold on to.

Several years ago, riverboat gambling and state lotteries were supposed to solve the tax problem in Illinois. Before this, gambling was illegal and viewed by many as immoral and harmful, benefitting casinos that were only doing it for the money. Whether you agree or not, consider this: The fact that governments now engage in the very same activity they themselves outlawed, and in the view of many of their constituents, still immoral and just a way to make money for the government, is even a worse form of moral degradation and hypocracy. The fact that this is a substitute for financial responsibility is another moral failure.

So don't worry about financial responsibility of your government, there is a lot of time to worry about it in the future. You got through this downturn and there may not be another one for who knows how long.