Do Politicians Ever Really Think?
I sometimes wonder if the politicians of the world ever really think for themselves or just go along with the crowd. We vote them in to represent us, but once that process has been done, we rarely see them until the next election when they ask us to vote for them again. They represent us so surely it would be good if they communicated with us more often and listened to what we are saying.
If we look back on the events of the last few years, visa vie the banking crisis and the collapse of many of the world’s economies, we have to ask ourselves the question, do politicians really think about what they are doing or not! Do they go along with what the head honcho says or do they consider the consequences of their actions themselves.
Common sense tells us that if you spend more money on the affairs of your country than the taxation system generates, then in due course something has to give otherwise the country will go broke!
Surely all politicians have enough common sense to know that they can only spend what they can afford. Borrowing continually, year after year, is going to result in disaster as we have recently seen. It appears that this borrowing is so fixed in our system that the governments of the world can almost treat borrowing as if they were printing money! The truth is they can’t and they shouldn’t!
It seems to me that most politicians are only interested in themselves and not interested in the likely outcomes of their actions. They do get paid reasonably well, they get good expenses and they have very long holidays! If what they achieve goes wrong, they blame others, or take the toll by losing their seats. Not a very high price for breaking an economy.
If you have your own business you’ll know that you cannot afford to spend more than you are earning. If things get tough, then cuts have to be made. A country’s economy should be no different from running a business. Yes, I know that we sometimes borrow money for our business, but it is always based upon our ability and desire to repay it quickly. Banks will lend us money if they think we are a good risk, and only then. Countries are nearly always seen as a good risk, as someone else will bail them out! Iceland, Ireland, Greece and other countries come to mind!
The only differences are that it is our taxpayer’s money that is used, for which we get no interest, and worst still, we don’t even get a say! If my business runs out of money, hard luck – it goes bust – end of story!
The problem appears to be that the majority of MP’s do not want to do anything that might jeopardise their chances of being re-elected at the next election. If an MP stood up to the country’s leaders and incited other MP’s to join a fight against spending money that the country cannot afford, i.e. by increasing tax, cutting expenditure, including benefits if necessary, they would certainly risk losing their seats at the next election.
A large proportion of the general public are fed up with this lack of sensible activity and has thrown in the towel. When a new election comes around they either don’t bother to vote or vote for the same old party as they always do.
What can we do to resolve this issue?
Nothing of course!
