Family and Finances
by Rabbi David Eidensohn
The Talmud says, "When the pantry is bare, quarrels erupt." Without money, we can't buy the necessities of life. Pressures mount, and families fall apart. The fiscal problems facing the United States of America are so large that we cannot comprehend them. David Brooks of the New York Times tossed out a figure of fifty trillion dollars down the road, but not so far down the road. When my generation retires, in just a few years, we will need many trillions to let it retire as promised in Social Security obligations. However, that money is nowhere to be found.
Several years ago, Alan Greenspan threatened us with a figure of ten trillion dollars for my generation. Do we realize what a trillion dollars is? The entire economy of the United States is 12 trillion dollars, according to the White House in its budget and fiscal explanations. This same document confirms Mr. Greenspan's prediction of a few years ago. The Social Services crisis is around 10 trillion dollars of Federal debt. We could, of course, just print more money, but ink is getting more expensive, and how many trees are there?
The crisis in Social Security is because at one time, a generation ago, there were 16 young workers per retiree. These sixteen workers paid in a hefty sum to Social Security that easily supported the one retiree. Today, the figure is only 3 workers per retiree, and soon, it will be 2 per retiree. This demographic decline of family is destroying the economy, and the Federal budget. It has already savaged European governments and society, leading to extended work lives and late retirements. Nobody knows how America will cope with it.
There is, indeed, no solution to a decline of family. Look at the present debt. The number, if you have time to read it, is 7 plus 12 numbers, or: 7,775,371,948,129.31. That is what almost 8 trillion dollars looks like. If our entire economy is 12 trillion dollars, and our debt is almost 8 trillion dollars, what does that say for us?
We have savaged our families by forcing women to be men and working. Then, they stopped having children. Then, the hope for our country vanished. Let us go back to big families, before we find big catastrophe. Stop teaching women to be men, or start teaching old people to go begging, if there is anything to beg.