What is a government's duty to take care of it's fiances?

[hannajomar]

I hear so many debates regarding the government’s duty to stop abortion, gay marriage, etc.
I also hear debates about how the government has a moral duty to take care of the poor.

But in my Catholic circle, I hear very few discussions regarding the morality of the government regarding it’s own finances. I know that if I ran my household finances in the same way as the national government, it would be sinful on many levels. What is the government’s moral duty to its citizens to responsibly take care of its finances?

 

[coachdennis]

Unlike the federal government, most if not all states have a balanced budget amendment so they either have to make cuts or increase revenue sources (taxes, fees, etc.). The federal government has no legal mandate unless you want to make the decision on purely philosophical or ethical terms.

Some would argue that short term debts are sometimes necessary, especially in emergency situations like wars (of course that brings up the morality of wars – an issue for another day). In families sometimes there are medical, travel emergencies where debt can be accumulated for teh short term.

Of course, your question posted was about fiances, not finances. I wouldn’t even try to comment on how the government takes care of its love interests!!!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist and it brought a smile to my face

 

[hannajomar]

Of course, your question posted was about fiances, not finances. I wouldn’t even try to comment on how the government takes care of its love interests!!!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist and it brought a smile to my face

 

[JimG]

Well, if you can’t take care of your finances, you can’t take care of your fiance, and the engagement will be off!

But I do agree that this is or ought to be a moral issue. Mr. Simpson and Mr. Bowles would agree.

 

[JimG]

I will add that this may be in fact the most important moral issue facing the government at the present time.

Currently the government has to borrow 40% of everything it spends. It only has income to cover 60% of its spending. As a result the debt is approaching $16 trillion. When we go off the debt cliff, everybody gets hurt, all citizens, and the poor most of all.

We’ve long since run out of money. Now we’re running out of time.

 

[hannajomar]

If I had started a thread about gay marriage, there would be a couple pages of responses by now. But for some reason, not much to say about government finances. I guess this is a less exciting topic.

 

[JimG]

If I had started a thread about gay marriage, there would be a couple pages of responses by now. But for some reason, not much to say about government finances. I guess this is a less exciting topic.

It sure seems like it. What I’m afraid of is that when nations, including the U.S. are no longer able to feed the debt through economic growth, collapse of the debt bubble will follow, plunging us all into misery. By then, everyone will be talking about it, but it will be too late.

Even worse, the conversation won’t change much. People will blame the rich, they will blame big banks, neither of which had a great deal of (name removed by moderator)ut into building the debt bubble. They will demand that the government get them out of the mess, but the government will be out of options. But then, the thread still won’t get much action, because we’ll all be doing our best just to survive, rather than spending time on Internet forums!

 

[Bill_7154]

I hear so many debates regarding the government’s duty to stop abortion, gay marriage, etc.
I also hear debates about how the government has a moral duty to take care of the poor.

But in my Catholic circle, I hear very few discussions regarding the morality of the government regarding it’s own finances. I know that if I ran my household finances in the same way as the national government, it would be sinful on many levels. What is the government’s moral duty to its citizens to responsibly take care of its finances?

IMO the government is funded by stolen money. It is not a mutually consentual arrangement with those it proports to govern. It does not have my consent to govern me. God is my master and has my consent to govern me. I believe the government is inherently evil and does not care about anything about itself (defined by me as the uber wealthy who actually control government, who put people in positions of power to do their bidding, making them wealthier by forced taxation of the masses to fund operations the benefit them (such as war profiteering- i.e. buy stakes in each others companies that sell things used in wars then engage in war taxing citizens to buy the products used in war so those companies (the individuals who own them) get rich… then buy stakes in each others companies that rebuild the countries infrastructures and tax the citizens to pay for the materials and services used to rebuild…and the companies (individuals who own the companies) get rich rebuilding the country it just destroyed… while using PR to sell the public on the idea that it was in their best interests (i.e. it’s really for our freedom).

Example: We now are in a war against ‘terror’. Terrorism is a military TACTIC, like a flanking maneuver. One can not fight a war against a military tactic. It is an implausible idea, but it sounds good. It can also never be one, so war profiteers will continue to make money off of this scheme forever as such a so called ‘war’ can never be won. But it sounds good and PR schemes pitch the idea that it’s about our safety and our freedom to keep us from looking behind the curtain to see what is really going on. A small group of very, very wealthy individuals are getting fithly rich and continue to do so, using government as an instrument to get the masses to pay for their schemes such as this.

Since I believe this it should come as no surprise that I do not believe that government has any vested interest in ‘doing what is right’ by the individual taxpayer, or the masses of taxpayers. The super rich are not effected at all by taxes, it’s like buying a stick of bubble gum to them, it doesn’t impact their finances in the least. On the contrary, taxing the masses works to enhance the wealth and power of the uber rich elite. IMO they do not care about you or me or anyone except their own families and friend who are also part of the uber rich elite.

‘Should’ the government be financially responsble? To me that’s like asking ‘should’ the devil do good things.