Debt Ceiling Drama

I'm traveling down the road
And I'm flirting with disaster
I've got the pedal to the floor
And my life is running faster
--Molly Hatchet

Two years ago I still held some hope that politicians would come to their senses and pull the system back from the brink. It didn't happen. The debt ceiling was raised as it had been every time the issue had previously come before Congress. My hope pretty much vaporized at that point.

There is little chance that it will be different this time. The media is merely elevating the drama factor. The drivel spewed last time is just louder.

Even those politicians who know that we are headed for disaster are feeling social pressure to cave. They don't want to be the ones that the addicts point to and say, "Curse him! He took our drugs away."

That drug is debt, the great enabler of spending beyond one's means.

As valiant as the efforts of some Tea Party types have been, the task before them is herculean. Our addiction is so strong that it seems unlikely that we can be coaxed to voluntarily kick the habit.

Instead, as we have noted many times on these pages, it is more likely that the outcome will not be grounded in voluntary choice. Either creditors no longer lend, or residual resources are simply consumed and there is nothing left to 'borrow.'

We will have then reached the chaos endpoint of socialism.