Excerpts from essays submitted to the Harry Singer Foundation by students across the nation
Contents
About the Foundation i
Testimonials ix
Foreward xiii
Preface xv
The Problem 1
The Causes 33
Proposals 69
Working Solutions 111
1994 HSF Essay Participants 141
Book Order Form 157
Associations 159
Index 165 ********************************************************************* Foreword
Why Weren't We Told?
"But we were," will be my answer to the thousands of people, maybe millions who will be asking that question by the year 2000.
At the end of this century, the disgraceful and precarious fiscal situation this country is in will be too obvious for any congress or administration to ignore or cover up. It is then we'll hear the above question. Too few are asking it now!
We are told that 26 percent of government's income goes to pay interest on the national debt; not paying off the gigantic principal, just the interest. The principal is what we're leaving to our children and grandchildren.
"Why weren't we told?" will be the question of the next decade.
I may not be around at age 84, so I want to answer it now! And in just three wordsÐ "but we were!"
Told, that is, by those concerned and willing to speak out. Men, and one woman I know of, trying their best to alert us to the situation we were getting into and the changes it represented. Paul Reveres is what Gary Bauer, former Under Secretary of Education and later a policy advisor to President Reagan, called these people trying to warn us. The Paul Reveres of today. One might have been enough in 1776, but now it takes a number of them to alert us to the dangers and call us to action. Unfortunately, no action of any note has taken place.
The ones I have been listening to might not have a horse among them, but they have been sounding a similar clarion call of danger approaching.
First, for me there was William Simon, one time Secretary of the Treasury. His two books, A Time for Truth (1978) and later, A Time for Action (1980), galloped off the pages and into my consciousness. Simon was writing about deficits and the dangers of the growing government debt more than 15 years ago. Was it because he didn't shout it from horseback that not enough people paid serious attention to what Bill Simon was saying in his books and speeches well over 15 years ago?
Peter G. Peterson, former Secretary of Commerce wrote and talked about the danger. His first book, Social Security: The Looming Crash, inspired five former U.S.Treasury Secretaries to join forces. Wiliam Simon, John Connaly, Douglas Dillon and Henry Fowler showed usÒand CongressÒwhat financial irresponsibility was doing to the future of our children and grandchildren.
Still nothing happened.
In a second book, On Borrowed Time, written with Neil Howe, Pete Peterson tried once again to warn us. It's subtitle, How the Growth in Government Spending Threatens America's Future, should have roused the nation. After he got through no one could legitimately ask, "Why weren't we told?"
In 1988 I reviewed The Coming Revolution in Social Security, written by Haeworth Robertson, another insider. Robertson, as a former chief actuary of our Social Security system, was not someone who had looked critically at a distant department. It was his department's own inside projections which he viewed with alarm. He didn't need a horse or a clarion cry. He got our attention by letting us know if Social Security is not changed significantly, it will eventually cost more than taxpayers will be willing to pay. He warned that 13 percent of payroll in 1980 would become 40 to 50 percent during the working lives of the students whose words you'll read here. We were told, but did not act.
About this time, the very articulate Governor of Colorado and now head of the Center for Public Policy at the University of Denver, burst on the national scene saying things about the future which nobody wanted to hear. His book, MegatraumasÐIn the Year Two Thousand bellowed warnings about where we were headed and pleaded for tough decisions. Too few listenedÐbut we were told.
Finally, a courageous woman! Helen P. Rogers, a fourth generation Californian stopped counting on politicians to solve the problems and decided to take matters into her own hands. She ran for the U.S. Senate and wrote an insightful book titled Alternatives. It was her campaign platform and proved that there were intelligent and logical alternatives to the government policies that were leading to a disappointing future for her five childrenÒand ours too!
But with no real power behind her, the Senate was not to benefit from this brilliant woman's solutions to some of the problems this country was facing. Those were problems my generation had created by sending so many undisciplined financial spendthrifts to Washington.
Paul Volker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve added his voice and said, "We are in a real sense living on borrowed money and borrowed time."
Martin L. Gross took a different approach. He followed his New York Times best seller, The Government Racket: Washington from AÒZ with a Ballantine best seller, A Call for Revolution.
Oh yes, you who in ten years or less, will be asking, "Why weren't we told?" must now admit that we were told. We just weren't listening.
Maybe the tellers weren't shouting from horseback, but they deserved a far greater and more concerned audience than they received. Tell that to the children.
Loren Dunton San Francisco August 9,1994 ********************************************************************* Preface
There is a way to reinvigorate the United States of America; this once great nation that so many people now believe is in an advanced state of decay. We must revive the concept of responsibility. We must practice inner discipline.
The young people you will hear from on these pages know this. Do the adults? And if so, why, these kids want to know, are the adults not doing more about the problems?
In the foreword, Loren Dunton tells us about prescient adults; the Paul Reveres who have been trying for years to mobilize their neighbors. Mr. Dunton is himself a respected member of this group of animated prophets. Twenty-five years ago he became concerned and to encourage long-range planning, Loren Dunton founded the financial planning profession. Today Mr. Dunton heads the ten year-old non-profit National Center for Financial Education.
Kids that lie, cheat, kill and run in packs are part of our future whether we like it or not. Along with the dysfunctional thugs are the thoughtful young people who will have to implement solutions to the problems we adults have eschewed. It's important that we listen to this generation and give the best and brightest of them the help they are so desperately seekingÒhelp just to survive.
Kids who see their friends and families murdered, beaten, raped and on drugs are calling out to us. They suspect the criminal justice system is totally impotent. They sense contradictions throughout societyÒin education, on the street and in their homes. Many of them feel desperate and afraid; others are full of hope. All are begging for our attention.
These are the voices of the neglected generation. Here is what they think of the media, of the courts, of their teachers. In these pages some of them reveal their fears while others unveil their hopes and dreams. It's time to not only to listen to what they are telling us, it's time to hear what they are saying. It's time to give this generation the benefit of our experience and the wisdom we have cultivated and kept hidden in an effort to remain humble and tolerant. We can no longer afford to look goodÒto feel good. The 'touchy-feely' days are over. It is time for all of us, young and old alike, to join forces, roll up our sleeves and get to work.
We ignored the Paul Reveres. Are we now going to ignore the children? Doesn't anyone care about the children?
Margaret Bohannon-Kaplan Co-Founder, The Harry Singer Foundation August 15,1994 August 15,1994994in an effort to remain humble and tolerant. We can no longer afford to look goodÒto feel good. The 'touchy-feely'ey had ever cheated on a test and many of them said they hadn't and wouldn't even if they knew they could get away with it. The majority of them said that they turn in most, if not all, of their homework." Tara F. Miller, Hoonah High School, Hoonah, Alaska
*The excerpts that follow show that it is not much of a reach from cheating on a school paper to s