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Real Economic Reform Will Be Like Pulling Teeth

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: I had the pleasure of playing golf and having lunch with one of my beloved sons the other day. We covered a variety of topics, from my recovery from dental surgery to his worries about the future of our country and our economy. And it occurred to us that the story of the former was a pretty good allegory for the unfolding story of the latter.

Real Economic Reform Will Be Like Pulling Teeth

Eventually, America Will Get It Taken Care Of I had the pleasure of playing golf and having lunch with one of my beloved sons the other day. We covered a variety of topics, from my recovery from dental surgery to his worries about the future of our country and our economy. And it occurred to us that the story of the former was a pretty good allegory for the unfolding story of the latter.

I had four teeth extracted about two weeks ago. An infection developed, and it took a week of antibiotics and meticulous care to get over that. Our lunch was a celebration, of sorts, at least for me: I could finally open my jaw wide enough to eat pretty much whatever I wanted (it was chicken wings, if you're curious).

I explained to my son that I'd put off the surgery too long, and that it's pretty typical to do that. Any dentist will tell you, I claimed, that everyone always waits until way too late to get a dental problem taken care of. One of my now-missing teeth was a molar in the back of my mouth I'd actually nicknamed "Tooth Henge," because the wisdom tooth behind it had already impacted it enough over the years to cause pieces of it to fall out, leaving only a couple of jagged spires reminiscent of the famous standing rocks of Stonehenge.

I confessed that I'd known there were problems with my teeth for some time... but each time the problem caused me pain, I did some quick home-remedy and lived with the pain until it either went away, or I got used to a "new normal." When I went to the dentist (not nearly often enough), he'd tell me I would eventually need to get some teeth extracted, and the longer I put it off, the more difficult and painful it would be. He was right, of course (damn their eyes, dentists always are)... but who wants to set aside days out of their life to endure a "difficult and painful" surgery? Better just to buy some more mouth rinse and ride it out... so my goofy thinking went.

Finally, I let the better side of my brain prevail, and I went ahead with the surgery. It was difficult. It was painful. In fact, at my final follow-up with the dental surgeon, he pronounced me healed, but didn't fail to mention "The problem, see, is that you're old."

Ouch.

So my son and I moved on to other topics. He's 26 this month (Happy Birthday, Son!), and he owns and runs a small business. Like almost every other entrepreneur I know these days, he's worried. The progressive government has been attacking the U.S. Constitution, and thereby our freedoms and the entrepreneurial spirit that drives our economy, for a hundred years. I've mentioned to him before that I believe things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better, that European nations teeter on the brink of economic ruin, that continuing woes over there will eventually come back to bite us here, that the government's spending and run-away entitlement policies will leave us no way to recover, that the stock market could be trading at 3000 or less in the foreseeable future, that I probably will not live to see the market reach a new high, that all of this economic collapse might get so bad as to lead to a shooting war, and that finding capital to grow a business (or even keep a car) might become as unlikely as a Big Foot sighting.

For some reason, he's edgy about the future.

He asked me what I thought would eventually happen.

I recited the list above... again... and added as supporting evidence some anecdotes from history that he had never heard before (not because he isn't intelligent and well-educated - he is - but because they no longer teach history in any school, having replaced it with "social studies").

Then I said something that might be brilliant: "Eventually, son, you and the other members of your generation will finally pay enough attention to all of this to finally do something about it." Kinda like finally going in for that dental surgery.

Eventually, America will wake up. Young folks the age of my kids will finally start paying attention to things they haven't had to pay attention to before because they could still use the metaphorical mouthwash and live with the pain and the "new normal." When that happens, they'll become more savvy consumers of news media, and start realizing their mainstream media are functioning as nothing more than propaganda vendors for the progressive movement. They'll know the truth is out there, and they'll start looking for it. The media industry will have to evolve, and real journalism may even be resurrected.

Eventually, Americans will take a turn toward serious citizenship, and realize that life is more than living each day for one's own entertainment. When that happens, the entertainment industry in this country will have to change, or die. When no one wants to watch movies or television shows or listen to music that pushes the usual liberal rant, it'll be hard to justify spending billions to create those works, and even Hollywood might change.

Eventually, Americans will feel the burn of having been cheated out of a real education by the very institutions that took huge tuitions from them in exchange for nothing but liberal indoctrination. The global warm-mongers will finally fade away as the last of the die-hard kool-aid drinkers realize they'd better sit down and shut up; students will start to read (and write) books that document what has really happened in the last century, as opposed to the spin-texts so common in schools today. Universities, community colleges, even public school districts might change back to a mission of real education.

Eventually, American citizens will realize how the government they didn't elect (since most of them have stayed home on election day) is ruining the economy in which the same citizens have to operate every day. They'll see that politicians need to be held to account, and voted out when they stick their noses into the same old pig-troughs that have fed the progressive march toward socialism since the days of Woodrow Wilson. They'll see that we can't afford the nanny-state entitlements the liberals want - and the ridiculous "health care" tax scheme will be the first to go. They'll start to understand that we can't take on an unlimited number of immigrants, and that criminals and terrorists need to be kept out of the country... eventually, Americans will rise up and peacefully throw the liberal bums out. Some of these "kids" will hear a calling to public service, and we might actually see the emergence of some real inspirational leadership, and even the federal government might change.

I offered these ideas to my son, and I hope it improved his outlook. Two years ago, he and his Millenial Generation colleagues were sold a bill of "hope and change." But now my son, and others of his generation, are starting to see what those two words really mean, and that is what gives ME hope... for a real change.

It'll be difficult. It'll be painful. It'll still get worse before it gets better. But if we take care of business... pull a few rotten Tooth-Henges... it will get better.

Time to get to the dentist.

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Article Tags: economic reform, health wealth and happiness, inspirational leadership, personal responsibility



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