A Father Built a Fence
Politicians often tell us that balancing the national budget is like running a household. Sometimes you have to cut back spending to pay your debts; there are months you spend less on X in order to afford Y; etc. Some question the validity of this comparison — but still, the statehouse-as-household analogy has power in its simplicity.
For instance, it’s true that whether you run a household or a statehouse, you have a duty to protect, feed and shelter people — and sometimes these priorities can become hard to balance.
A father built a fence
Imagine a man who built a fence around his home and yard to protect his children. There was a busy road in front of the home, and a dark forest that loomed behind.
I once lived in a house where every ball rolled down the driveway toward the highway. I understand why the father built the fence to protect his kids.
But he didn’t stop there. He built a wall. And then he bought drones and cameras to keep an eye on the world outside. He built bunkers beneath the ground and purchased weapons, enough for one hundred wars, and stockpiled them in great barns he had built by his kids’ swing set. He had two kids.
One morning his daughter, ten years old, came to her mom and dad at the breakfast table. “How’d you sleep, kiddo?” the father asked.
“Well,” she said, “not great. There’s cold air from that crack in the window. And that hole in the roof is getting bigger. Some rain dripped on me last night.”
“Well,” said her father, “Maybe you can sleep in your little brother’s room tonight. You can both rest well because you know I’m protecting you from many dangers out there.”
Her mom changed the subject. “What do you want for breakfast, sweetheart?”
“What do we have?”
Her mom told her that they’d had to cut back on food, because Daddy was buying some new robots to protect the home. So there was cereal, but no milk.
The children got thinner
As time went on, the household continued to fortify itself against the dangers the father believed were outside. Meanwhile, the roof of the home continued to rot and the cupboards got more bare. The children got thinner and became sick more often. They had few books. The swing set broke and didn’t get fixed.
The father was spending more on defense than he needed. The father was spending more on defense than he should.
