In December of 2025, the federal government of the United States was in debt to the tune of thirty-eight trillion, four-hundred seventy nine billion, seven hundred and sixty three million, eight-hundred thousand, three-hundred ninety-three dollars. That’s a lot of money that we owe, and sooner or later someone is going to have to pay it.
Under President Biden, $166 billion in college loans was written off. The write-off made many colleges happy, because if the American public were burdened with college debt, that might influence new high-school graduates to skip going into debt for an overpriced college degree that offered little advantage in the workplace. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, however, college is not regarded as the only way to make a good living. I would be remiss if I didn’t note that the reason so many young citizens went to college in the seventies, eighties, and beyond was that factories and trades didn’t pay very well, especially if you were young and inexperienced. The great number of middle-class youth at the end of the baby-boom weren’t interested in dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs that also didn’t pay very well. I contend that the rise in blue-collar wages is a direct result of lack of people applying for such jobs, you know, that old capitalist supply and demand theory. Of course, many American firms simply shipped their factories overseas to find cheap labor.
The Pandemic of 2020 changed many things about the economy. It wouldn’t be the first time an epidemic altered an economy; the Great Plague of Europe (1347 to 1351, but there were other outbreaks) caused wages to rise significantly, mostly because the working poor who lived in close quarters suffered the most fatalities, and the lack of supply of the manual labor (again, that supply and demand thing) caused wages to rise. The landed gentry (aka the wealthy and entitled) who fled to their country estates survived a bit better, but then had to pay higher wages to the survivors of the plague (also known as the Black Death because if its symptoms) to get any work done.
During the Pandemic of 2020, Minnesota received about a billion dollars in aid, with much of that money in control by Somalis who had arrived within the past few decades, and had set-up shop in Minnesota. After a short time, it appears that a substantial amount of that money went into the hands of the Americanized Somalis and not to the public. Reports suggest that a substantial amount went to a Somali terrorist organization. It is a known fact that many African states are poor because of corrupt governments. Apparently, that behavior has now relocated to the United States, specifically Minnesota, with hundreds of millions disappearing from the funds and the Somalis managing the money becoming suddenly wealthy. The United States is deeply in debt, and putting state funds into the hands of corrupt newly-minted citizens is not a path to success.
Corrupt or incompetent governments do not serve their populations well. To quote the U.S. Declaration of Independence: “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.” I am not recommending a new government, but certainly, the aforementioned theft is evidence that some of the government officials are either ignoring their responsibilities, or deliberately enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers. The word for the government of the Somalis is “kleptocracy,” which is a government where “corrupt politicians enrich themselves secretly outside the rule of law.” The government agencies who protect the public from such individuals is looking into what may be one of the greatest public thefts in American history; as well, it may result in changes in the way public funds are given to people who are supposed to be public servants. While this is a sad tale all around, the fact that our government has recognized the theft and taken action is probably the only good thing to come out of this scandal. Meanwhile, we still owe lots of money.
