If you don't make it about the money, it'll be about the money

As I venture out on my own in this big world, I've been learning through trial and error, how best to manage money. And as I learn what works for me, and what most certainly does not, I've begun to wonder about our nation's spending habits.

Not the spending of regular, ordinary people, but the government. I pay extrordinary taxes in this country(just over 35%), and somehow we have trillions in debt. How can this be?

What in fuck sake does the government spend so much on? At least I can pinpoint my spending habits, thanks to www.mint.com. (its pretty cool, try it out!) Maybe there should be some sort of tracking like this. Perhaps some transparent way of finding out how we went from a surplus to a record deficit in about three years.

And why doesn't anyone care? Worse yet - why aren't people taking notice? As long as things keep trucking along, and people don't really have to worry about macro problems, things will never really change.

The irony of this is that things will change if we continute like this - and most definitely for the worse. Where are the americans I read about in history class? The americans of the revolution or the boston tea party?

We live in such a delicate bubble, one that shields our nakedness. If we don't make it about the money - the spending on wars or bailing companies out that have failed because of bad decisions - it'll end up being all about the money. And that's very un-american.