I started this as a comment in tjlord’s diary: DoD Accounting - What is the problem with a $62 Billion "we don't know where it went"? but it started to get way too long, so voila, here is my comment in diary form.
The U.S. government’s accounting systems, along with its technological systems are antiquated. Infrastructure of any kind has been at the bottom of the priority list for decades. So just as our transportation, electrical, drinking water, sewage, healthcare and educational systems are not even close to keeping up with current requirements, neither is any of the infrastructure within the federal government. This is the end result: money down the drain, people getting sick or dying, small businesses suffering, global warming reaching the tipping point much sooner than anyone thought possible, etc. etc.
Infrastructure repair and, more importantly, upgrading has been left so long that the required overhead to bring everything up to par is immense and when people hear the numbers they balk because we have been conditioned to see only the short-term numbers and not the long-term effects. The upside to this massive investment, besides the obvious improvements to our infrastructure, is the creation of a crapload of jobs that will make our economy incredibly strong, but that just does not seem to compute in the brains of many.
The boat is sinking due to disrepair and old parts that can’t keep up under the strain of all the new passengers, but it has been happening so slowly that those who are on the upper decks are still partying while those on the lowest decks are drowning. Those in the middle wish they could be on the upper decks partying because it looks so fun and at the same time are scared shitless of being the next ones to drown. But they have been conditioned to think flashy is better, so they do what they think they should to be like those on the upper decks instead of working like fuck to prevent themselves from drowning and saving as many as they can that are already under water.
Partying is so much more fun than doing all that heavy lifting. The problem is, those leaks that started on the bottom decks? They have weakened the whole boat and the cracks are appearing along the walls of the middle decks and the panic is starting to ensue.
Some of those panicking are latching on to the toes of those in the upper echelons hoping that they will be pulled up to the party decks, but really, who wants to party on overcrowded decks? So promises are made to make sure the panic does not turn into something that might actually endanger the party. In the end, however, those hangers-on are really bothersome and when the time comes a shake of the foot will get rid of them while they plunge into the waters with their eyes widened wondering why, after doing and agreeing to everything they were told would give them a ticket to the upper decks, they are drowning with the rest of us.
Many on the middle decks, however, are finally waking up and realizing the real danger we are facing as a nation and are scrambling to figure out what to do to fix things. The fact that the screams from the lower decks did not clue them in and instead they had to wait until the cracks started appearing on their own walls is pretty damning, but at least they are waking up.
It is yet to be seen if enough people with enough fortitude are waking up to enable the system to start fixing those leaks and growing cracks. The problem is you can’t just fix the cracks on the middle decks when the leaks originated on the decks already under water. So there is going to have to be some major work done to first bail out the water, then not just repair, but replace the rusted out, leaking areas with a stronger metal alloy that will withstand the test of time as long as regular maintenance, including incorporating the necessary upgrades, is done.
This will take a lot of money, much of which, at the moment, is tied up in the bank accounts of those on the upper decks who seem to fail to realize that they are connected to everyone else because we are all on the same damn boat. One day even they will go down no matter how fancy their party outfits are. If they want to save their own skin, they need to start investing in fixing the boat. But it seems many are still pretty oblivious and look at their middle-class sycophants and say, “See? People want to be like us, so why should we change?” It will be up to the rest of us to force them to pry open their wallets and actually pay for the repair and upgrade of the boat that has provided them such a grand party all this time.
Are there enough of us and are we strong enough to do that? Hopefully this November will provide us with a positive answer to that question, because that boat? The cracks are getting wider and it is sinking faster and those already under water will be beyond rescuing as the rest of us join them.