Finneran: Other People’s Money

Friday, August 28, 2015

Tom Finneran, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

Other people’s money. It’s a phrase that my friend Tom uses a lot. It’s a sarcastic and telling phrase.

It of course refers to the tendency of candidates and activists to try to sell an idea or program by making it seem “free”—i.e.—that it will be paid for by “others." How quickly we like to spend other people’s money.

Try this little experiment the next time you’re at a wedding. Watch closely--if there is an open bar it’s usually like a scene out of the roaring ‘20s, with everyone having a jolly old time at the expense of the father of the bride. Everyone’s a sport and the words “let me “”buy”” you a drink” tumble out of mouths as if it’s a Budweiser convention. Conversely, if it’s a cash bar everyone seems to be a candidate for the position of designated driver.

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I know this to be true for I’ve been the father of the bride twice and boy oh boy did the booze flow like a river. Apparently we had some very thirsty friends and guests……………

The addiction of OPM of course is most frequently seen in our politics. It’s a street-corner hustle and it drives me crazy. Here’s my simple equation for virtually all public programs and expenditures---if the idea is worthwhile, then everyone pays in. Police and fire protection—we’re all in. Schools and libraries—we’re all in. Armed forces—we’re all in. Courts and environmental protection—we’re all in. Yes, these and many other things can be expensive and thus they always bear close watching. But consider that the elimination of these things would be even more expensive—our freedom, our safety, our economy, and our society would not survive without such expenditures. Thus my simple standard—we’re all in on the essentials of a free, robust, and civilized society.

It’s the notion that “the rich” or “the privileged” or “the one-percenters” will pay for everything we want that I find obnoxious. Of course it has been pointed out that eventually you run out of “other people’s money” for when untamed appetites view the teeming shelves of possible goodies the appetites go berserk and OPM is quickly spent. So much for the free ride that seemed so appealing to so many……….as with all fairy tales, there is no handsome prince, nor is there a free ride.

Of late of course we’ve all become free-riders of a sort at the national level. Our deficits and our national debt should stand as colossal embarrassments. The fact that we are not scandalized by such deficits and debts tells us a lot about our selfishness and about the grip of OPM. Of course the “other people” in this ongoing spectacle, the patsies if you will, are our children, for they are the ones who will inherit the nation’s maxed-out credit cards. We might be dead broke in a classic sense but apparently the binge must continue, no matter how reckless, no matter the cost. Both Democrats and Republicans bear the blame for this abdication of duty, a duty by the way to which you and your family abide. Neither you nor your family can spend beyond your means infinitely. You know that there’s a day of reckoning and that the piper must always be paid.

Beware then the candidates, no matter how charming, no matter how glib, who outline their version of American greatness through the magic of OPM.

There is no magic. There is only me and you.

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