Money doesn't grow on trees?

Anyone else getting a government spending headache? I wonder when it will end. I say "when" rather than "if", because this level of spending is truly unsustainable.

From a Bloomberg article: "The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.... The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation."

Ouch. So, even if we assume that this is all money well spent (and I hope nobody out there is foolish enough to believe that!), there are only three ways to pay for all the spending: taxing, borrowing, or printing money. We're doing all three, but I wonder if the average American is aware of the consequences of these actions.

Taxing. Even if we were to take 100% of what all the "rich" people make, it wouldn't come close to covering these costs. Unavoidably, taxes are going to go up for all of us, but it still won't be enough to pay for what we have spent.

Borrowing. We're doing plenty of that, but that is money that has to be paid back with interest. Its our future money (our children's money) already spent. We're reaching the point where we'll be paying over $600 billion annually in interest alone on our debt -- debt which continues to skyrocket under the spending of the Obama administration.

Printing money. See a previous blog post about the Fed printing over a trillion dollars. Printing money is dangerous because it causes *inflation*; it devalues our currency (the dollar). Would any sane person choose a brutal beating later over a slap in the face now? Its very unwise to make decisions for short-term comfort without consideration for the long-term implications. No nation on earth has ever spent and printed money without it leading to inflation. To think we can spend our way to prosperity is as foolish as going on a wild spending spree when your credit cards are maxxed out and you can't pay your bills. Yikes.

There's an old saying that money doesn't grow on trees. I just wish some of our elected officials would realize that.