Government Size And Spending | Teen Ink

Government Size And Spending

May 1, 2012
By Paige Theriault BRONZE, Bangor, Maine
Paige Theriault BRONZE, Bangor, Maine
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Ever thought about how the government spend the average U.S citizen's hard-earned money? Of course, everyone has. There is no way that someone in the United States has not though about where their money is going. How bad could our country's future debt crisis be? Very bad; "it has almost become a cliche that the projected accumulation of public debt in the United States is unsustainable" (Burman 2). The leaders in both major political parties understand this, even though nothing is being done. If current policies continue, America will experience a debt crisis (Phaup 3). In Obama's State of The Union Address, Obama said, "We are living a legacy of deficit that began almost a decade ago" (5). Obama also said, "Now that the recession is over, we have to accept that our overnment spends more than it takes in" (5).

Our country's government spends thousands of dollars mass producing unnecessary appliances such as: toaster ovens, waffle irons, margarita machines, bread makes, salad mixers, food processors, and iPads. Marquit writes that, "The average household wastes between 10% and 15% of their income each month" (1). Therefore, if one U.S citizen earned $50,000 a year and wasted 10% on unnecessary appliances, that means that one person would be wasting $416.67 monthly. Everybody wastes money on what they think are "necessities." These "necessities" invlove iPads, cell phones, and other appliances. United States citizens spend their money because they want to be apart of the "it-factor." It is like a clique; nobody wants to be in the lower class. It is almost as if our country was put back in the 17th century, when only the lower classes were taxed.

The mass production of new talking toys, new electronics, new cars, and new ways to clean have done the most damage to the United States. Technology has always played a simple yet complicated part in any American's life. Take the simple teenager for instance. This teenager has a cell phone, because his parents bought it for him. They want to go out on a date, so he takes his cell phone. That is how simple it is, he just takes his cell phone and leves. The average U.S citien spend seven and a half hours dailt on the phone or the internet (CBS 1). That is seven out of twenty-four hours in a day. While thinking about this example, think about how much money the average U.S citizen spends on technology, like a computer or a cell phone.

Like us; Canadians are also going into a debt crisis, but at a slower pace. Canadians and Americans: who has more money? Right now, the Canadians. The cash amount comparison from a U.S dollar, to a Canadian dollar is $1.04: $1.00. Canadians do not require as much money to spend as Americans do, they have more in their dollar than the U.S citizen makes. Canadians have more money in their reserve than most Americans have in their own bank account. That is why they have more money than Americans do. Canada's debt as of July 22, 2011 was about $563 billion, and America's debt was about $14 trillion (David 1). Canada is slowly increasing their debt, but that one country will never have as much of a debt crisis as America.

The leaders in both major political parties seem to understand this debt crisis America is in, but nothing seems to be making them do anything about is (Huizenga Video). The government should be more than willing to reprioritize what they are spending instead of spending more than what they take in (Obama 4). Obama says, "Everyday, families sacrifice to live within their means. Their government should do that same" (6). Our president also said, "Freezing annual domestic spending for five years will decreasethis deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade" (5). To help decrease the deficit, we need to put a "leash" on these mandatory spending in our country. Those mandatory spendings include: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

The government takes money from every single citizen in the United States, for unnecessary appliances in life that are usually not used or given away as a present. The government spends more than their intake, which is going to make America go into debt crisis. The United States is going to nd up ina debt crisis, all because of these "mandatory" spending that the governing leaders force upon our country. Leaders in both major political parties understand the debt crisis, and are doing nothing about it. If the government is close enough to becoming a cliche because of the debt crisis, then this is obviously something that should be dealt with for our future. If there was not a debt crisis in America, a majority of the population would not be homeless, starving, under-employed, and unemployed. This issue is a major part of our society as to why citizens in America see so many homeless and starving men and women on the streets. This affects Earth because America is like "A country upon a hill", every other country looks up to us. Immigrants migrate to America to have a better life. That is what our country should give them, a better life.


The author's comments:
I wrote this piece as a research paper for my english class. I just thought that if I shared it with other teenagers like myself, I would show others how "bad" our economy really is.

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