My bank refused to up my limit. I explained to them that I needed to increase my credit limit so that I could keep spending. I pleaded that this was the only way that I’d ever be able to repay my debts – if I could keep borrowing more.

By James M. Sharp

My wife went on a week-long cruise recently with a few of her girlfriends. She had a wonderful time. While she was gone, I decided to have some fun myself so I went on a spending spree. Boy – was it fun! I bought a new Ford Mustang which I had been wanting for quite some time.  I had also wanted a boat for many years so I went out and bought myself a 32-foot Donzi.

I had enjoyed good credit for my entire adult life but, the more I spent, the more I realized that people were less than enthralled at the prospect of loaning me more money to fund my binge. After putting a 60-inch television on my Visa card, I found that I was nudging my credit limit. What would I do? I still have more things that I want to do and “stuff” that I want to buy. I know what…I’ll just give myself a credit limit increase so that I can keep on spending.

OOPS! That plan backfired on me. My bank refused to up my limit. I explained to them that I needed to increase my credit limit so that I could keep spending. I pleaded that this was the only way that I’d ever be able to repay my debts – if I could keep borrowing more. I explained to them that the Mustang and the Donzi were “investments”. I further asserted that said investments would lead me to prosperity. Then, and only then, would I be able to set about repaying my debts.

Alas, they were not buying my story. I asked them to explain to me why the federal government could do it but I cannot.

Well, the recently-elected Republican-led House of Representatives has been very busy attempting to roll back the spending train wreck of the Pelosi era. If the mess can be fixed at all, it will likely take years before some semblance of normalcy and balance returns.

One of the major issues facing Congress is a bill that will raise the nation’s debt ceiling. The limit is presently set at $14.294 trillion (or $14,294,000,000,000.00, if you prefer to see it written out in dollars and cents). The debt – as of February 15th – stood at $14.154 trillion. In theory, at least according to the “experts”, if we do not raise the debt limit, all kinds of terrible things are going to happen economically. The sheer magnitude of these numbers is impossible for mere mortals to comprehend. But let us try:

If you were to earn one dollar per second, you would make $3600 per hour or $86,400 per day. Not bad money by just about anyone’s standards. In one year, you would earn $31,536,000; about equivalent to the salary of a top-shelf professional baseball player. This is one dollar per second twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Now, how many years do you think that it would take you – at this salary – to pay off the national debt? Are you sitting down? It would take over FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS. The exact number is 443,937 years.

Let’s say that you’re a REALLY good baseball player and you can command a THOUSAND dollars per second or $31.5 BILLION per year. It would still take you 444 years. I’m thinking that your elbow or your rotator cuff is going to give out before you finish paying down the debt.

So, now that we have put this number – 14,000,000,000,000 – into some sort of context, let’s go back to the concept of a “debt ceiling”. Since 1962, it has been raised by Congress seventy-four times; ten times in the past ten years. Is this not analogous to my story above? I reached the limit on all of my lines of credit and then asked my creditors to raise my personal “debt ceiling”. Well, my creditors did not stand for that, did they? Do you think that I am going to be able to keep spending? It does not appear to be so. Not without finding another source of funds. And with my home equity now tapped out, where am I going to find someone willing to loan me more?

I would like to propose the following to Congress:

Why not introduce a bill to raise the debt ceiling to one QUADRILLION (1000 trillion or one million billion) dollars? That should hold them for at least a little while and we will not have to go through this silly exercise again next year.

Or WILL we?

Help Make A Difference By Sharing These Articles On Facebook, Twitter And Elsewhere:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•