Helping Government

Dear Victorious,

You seem to rant about the national debt quite a bit. What you don't seem to grasp is that the common citizen is really pretty helpless. Do you honestly believe there is anything any of us can do individually that could really help?

Marva B. - Scottsdale, AZ

Dear Marva,

Yes, I do.

We could vote. A shocking number of people fail to vote in most elections, especially for our local officials and delegates to the federal government. Most people don't know who their Senators or Congressmen are. We stick our heads in the sand and assume that it's out of our hands. It would be responsible for us to actively research and know the candidates, vote for the ones who are qualified and ethical, and then follow their activity to ensure that they're voting our values. When they screw up, we can communicate with them --- letting them know that we don't approve of pork, poor legislation or other irresponsible representation. In other words, we can hold accountable those whom we elect. This of course would be inconvenient and require sacrifice on our part.

We could pay. It is estimated that as many as 43-49% of all U.S. citizens will pay no federal income taxes because of the way the tax code is written. They either earn too little to pay or they have sufficient deductions reduce their tax liability to zero (or less). Common sense would tell you that this isn't a sustainable economic model. All of those people are benefiting from the services of the federal government. So we could stop taking tax deductions and credits that we're entitled to legally --- in an effort to voluntarily help the government fiscally. We could stop taking government benefits like social security, disability, Medicare and Medicaid, welfare, food stamps and other entitlements unless we absolutely need them and have no other way to support and sustain ourselves. Finally, we could freely give money to the government. People will give millions to their alma mater because they're proud of it and want to help it be stronger and even more credible. Why couldn't we view the federal government the same way. We could name the U.S. government in our wills, specifically designating the funds to be used for retiring national debt. This of course would be inconvenient and require sacrifice on our part.

I am not optimistic that the American culture will embrace any of these things soon.