Apr 8, 2017 2 min read

First, let me say that I am a fairly generous person, letting my heart and my wallet make the decisions.

However, let me offer this scenario: Let’s say that I make $200 a week in take-home pay. I need a few items from the store and, as I enter, several people ask me for donations. Being a generous person, I give all of them something and then start to shop.

When I get to the checkout counter, I find that I want to purchase $100 in goods, but I have only $50 because I gave $150 to the people outside. I still need the stuff I picked out, so I pull out my credit card. This happens every week until I can no longer make the payments on my credit account and they shut down my card.

I now have to make a decision. I have to be a little less generous and a little more frugal, so I can still buy what I need and also pay down my debt.

If this story sounds familiar, it is because this is where we are as a nation. Conservatives want to be frugal and pay down the debt, and liberals still want to give away everything with no idea how to pay for everything, so they want to just keep on borrowing.

There must be a middle ground for these two groups, because we still need and want to be generous, but we also need to start paying as we go and start bringing down the debt.

Allan H. Jack

South Franklin