Heinlein, Robert A – Expanded Universe

were in fact insurance (the basis on which the gimmick was sold to us by FDR’s “New

Deal”), the receipts would be segregated and invested and not shown as income . . .

OR a competent insurance actuary with staff would calculate the commitment and it

would show in the National Public Debt.

(The fact that a debt is amortized over the years

doesn’t stop it from being a debt. It was an amortized mortgage that got me into

this racket. The prospect of years and years of future monthly payments spoiled my

sleep.)

The only way the Government can go on paying Social “Security” to my

generation is by taxing you young people more and more heavily. . . and each year

there are more and more old people and fewer and fewer young people. It won’t help

to run the printing presses faster; that causes food to rise in price, rents to go

up, etc.-and people over 65 start putting pressure on Congress .. . and there’s an

election coming up. (There’s always an election coming up.)

One thjng I learned as a wardheeler was that (with scarce exceptions) people

in my age group want one of two things: 1) They want to keep on clipping those

coupons and collecting those rents and they don’t give a damn what it does to the

country, or 2) they want that raise in Social Security (Townsend Plan) (“Ham &

Eggs”) (you name one) and they don’t give a damn what it does to the country.

(I don’t claim to be altruistic. Just this pragmatic difference: I am

sharply aware that, if the United States goes down the chute, I go down with it.)

I use the term “Federal Public Debt” because what is usually termed the

“Public Debt” is by no means our total public debt. There are also state, county,

city, and special-district debts. It is difficult to get accurate figures on these

public debts but the total appears to be larger than the Federal Public Debt. I

can’t make even a wild guess at the Social Security commitment

but our total public promises-to-pay have to exceed two trillion dollars.

How much is a trillion? Well, it means that a baby born today owes at least

$4,347.83 to the Federal Government alone before his eyes open. (No wonder he

yells). It means that the Zero Population Growth family (who was going to save us

all-remember?) of father, mother, and 2.1 children

owes $17,826 in addition to private debts (mortgage, automobile, college for 2.1

children).

Of course papa won’t pay it off; that debt will grow larger. But it will

cost him $2000 a year (and rising) just to “service” his pro-rata; any taxes for

which he getsanything at all-even more laws-is on top of that.

A trillion seconds is 31,688 years, 9 months, 5 days, 8 hours, 6 minutes,

and 42 seconds-long enough for the precession of the equinoxes to make Vega the Pole

Star, swing back again to Polaris, and go on past to Alpha Cephei. Or counting the

other way it would take us to 29,708 B.C.. . . or more than 25 thousand years before

Creation by Bishop Usher’s chronology for creationism.

I don’t understand a trillion dollars any better than I do a trillion

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seconds. I simply know that we had better stop spending money we don’t have if we

want to avoid that Man on Horseback.

But I don’t think we will stop “deficit financing,” the euphemism that

sounds so much better than “kiting checks.”

You may have noticed that 1970 figure for public employees (not my

extrapolation for 1980, but the official 1970 figures straight from the United

States Bureau of the Census).

That figure does not include the Armed Forces. It does not include some

special categories. It is easier to learn the number of slaves imported in 1769

(6,736) than it is to find out exactly how many people are on public payrolls in

this country. And it is not simply difficult but impossible to determine how many

people receive Federal checks for which they perform no services. (Or food stamps.

Are food stamps money?) But one thing is certain: the number of people eligible to