The Coming Austerity and Volunteerism: Part One

Across Europe we are seeing new austerity programs being put into place. Our friends in Great Britain seem to be leading the way in this regard by slashing their budget, including military spending, as well as raising taxes.  From Bloomberg:

 Government departments got an average 19 percent cut to their budgets in the plan, with 490,000 public-sector jobs forecast to be lost. People at every level of income are hit, with those moving into social housing facing steeper rents, the unemployed seeing their benefits cut, and wealthier parents losing their child benefits.

Here in the States we seem to be biding our time hoping for a savior or dues ex machina which allows us to cut taxes while keeping all the services we have grown accustomed to.

However, even here in the land of plenty we will eventually need to take steps similar to England. Services will be cut- many are hoping, rightly so, that the cuts start with medical reform and medicare- and taxes will go up, maybe not this year, or next year, but soon.

As a conservative I have always espoused the belief that government should not do everything for us and now that many people may not have the government to depend on for certain services it is time for conservatives, and all Americans, to live up to the corollary to the belief in small government: that we, the citizens, can and will take care of our own.

 "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth."  --Muhammad Ali  

We have always said that faith-based initiatives, community outreach and private philanthropy would be better at helping those in need than taxing us and letting the government bureaucratize it. Now is the time to prove out theory right. We all will need to look in our own communities to find those areas where we can best serve others.