I am old enough to remember the pervasive punditry at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was asserted widely that the victory of the “free world” over communism was directly attributable to our ability to endlessly expand our military spending, based on our strong economy, until the sclerotic Soviet system could not keep pace and folded beneath the pent-up anger of its own population.
Fast-forward to today:
We have a proposed defense budget for next year of $1.5 trillion.
The current national debt is $38.96 trillion (122.5% of our gross domestic product).
Servicing the interest on that debt is now the largest category of federal budget spending, surpassing defense and Medicare.
The U.S. economy that sustains this level of debt is driven primarily by services, including finance, real estate, healthcare and technology.
I am sure I am not the only one who sees areas of concern here.
And, with the push for deregulation of all those sectors, the odds are growing longer every day that an artificial intelligence and tech bubble or a private-credit bubble or a housing bubble or a cryptocurrency bubble — or some combination of these — will burst. Not to mention student loan debt, healthcare debt and unfunded state pensions.
I am afraid that we are now following the path of the Soviet Union, outspending our ability to sustain our “American empire” and beginning to fade into a second- or third-rank power.
The current idiotic war with Iran is shining a torch on our arrogance and improvidence, and the rest of the world is moving away from our dying light.
I don’t pretend to have a sovereign solution to our fiscal mess. But, surely, an obvious first step is to end the Iran war now.
Mary Pat Elmlinger
Newark
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
