Shatter the Ceiling
Opinion | Economy is the sum total of energy allocation and application of its viable currency.
Per Section Four of the 14th Amendment of the United States enacted after the Civil War, which took place between 1861-1865, "... Validity of the public debt of the United States shall not be questioned...".
The United States has never defaulted on its debts to date. The closest it came to doing so was after the War of 1812, when a fire burned down the Treasury. The ashes of metaphor are not lost on the present.
There simply does not exist a legal precedent by which to allow default. Thus, the stranglehold of partisan ideologues is without merit. There is nothing to negotiate. Still, what cannot be overlooked and under-discussed at this time, is how we utilize resources in the first place. How are we mis-allocating currency?
What are we doing to live within our limits?
What are our values? What are our priorities? What matters to us?
Financial well-being is the metric by which the health of a nation is measured. One cannot know the wealth of being, which is attested to by security and safety, without the financial means to cover one's basic living expenses. To be broke is to be vulnerable to the whims of existence in a way that marginalizes one's best efforts for a successful or meaningful life.
As this is true of the individual, it is true of the nation-state, for it is the same dynamic at play, which is only amplified at scale.
Poverty is evidence of poor choices and greed. Poverty is the ultimate injustice. It is difficult to transcend the chains of poverty, for it is cyclical and seemingly immanent and transcendent.
POVERTY IS AN UNNECESSARY CONDITION OF HUMAN LIFE. 100% MAN-MADE.
War is a costly enterprise. It leads to loss of life, health and wealth at scale.
There is no question that funding the war in Ukraine is a major source of the financial duress with which the United States is now contending. There is always more than one factor that contributes to any one situation. The world is still reeling from the results of the pandemic.
Regressive conflation of events that leads to peak moments of turmoil must not be overlooked.
The common vernacular of political jargon is all but knee-jerk at this point. It portends the ill-fated doom and gloom of slippery-slope catastrophizing, and in this way justifies aggression and acts of war as the necessary and unavoidable response to the bogeyman out to get us.
As far as recorded human history is concerned, humans have not changed at all. Technology is different for sure, but humans, not so much. It's as if the same souls recycle, as what else explains the fact that humanity as a whole has been stuck in repetitive cycles of dysfunction.
These times call for bold new vision, and a different approach to solving the complex problems that are common to humanity. War is simply no longer the way of the world. Some things will always remain a constant to the necessary condition of human well-being on earth. Things like safety, security and having the means [access] to fulfilling one's basic living needs.
In the Army there is a saying that follows, "We are only as strong as our weakest link." A nation is only as strong as the sum total of its people. Without people, there is no nation.
It is never too late for diplomacy.
The best place to meet is in the middle. That place beyond the mind prisons of ideological undertones that hold the best people captive. It is within lawful reach of the United States President to disallow a debt default. It is also incumbent upon the president to seek peace above all. For in peace lies true prosperity and the only real prospect for wealth of being.
America, and the world, need leaders who know how to negotiate successful outcomes that benefit all. For the one thing we share in common, is our bold, blessed and beautiful humanity.
See Article: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/could-biden-avert-debt-default-by-using-14th-amendment-2023-05-02/
Diana Hochman is an Author and Life Coach. Her focus is on society and wellness of being.