KILLING YOUR GOOSE

Let’s say you had this goose. The goose seemed normal, just waddling around and eating and doing what geese do. Then one day you discover that this is no normal goose. This goose lays golden eggs. You begin to gather up these eggs and you know you are going to be very rich. You decide if you just increase the feed and push the goose a little more, she will lay more eggs. So you feed and you push until you reach a point where the goose is exhausted. Then, sadly, you go out to gather eggs and you find your goose dead. Graveyard dead. Your steady supply of wealth has come to an end.

As I look around me, I can see a number of golden egg-laying geese. One might be the medical industry. The entire conglomerate has priced themselves out of the market. If it were not for insurance, that industry would collapse. Obama tried to salvage it all with his “Mickey Mouse” scheme known as Obamacare but that is failing. Collapse is imminent.

Never fear, avowed Socialist Bernie Sanders has the solution. Single payer government-controlled “free” medical care for everybody. Estimates are that the ten-year cost of such a “free” program would be in the trillions of dollars. Guaranteed bankruptcy for America. So much for free medical care. This golden goose is being strangled and it won’t last long.

A number of other entities are working at killing their goose as well. Consider ESPN. In their wisdom they have decided to become a political action sports network. It is not enough to broadcast sporting events, no, they must also offer political commentary on events whether they are related to sports or not. I, like many others, tune in ESPN now only when I have no other choice. Very soon other networks will take up the slack and ESPN will be history. Another dead goose.

How about the National Football League? A few of the players, millionaire spoiled brats, have decided to disrespect this country, our military, and our flag be sitting or kneeling during the playing of our national anthem. The NFL says they have that right to self-expression. This is the same league that dictates how long their socks must be, but they have this other right to be disrespectful to their country. Their ratings are down, down. Their goose is teetering on the brink. They have a choice. Either get a handle on their disrespectful punks, or watch their audience, and incidentally their billions in revenue, disappear. Another one bites the dust.

Not to be outdone in the killing of geese department is the US Congress. For years they have catered to special interest groups and to big money donors passing laws to benefit them at the expense of the country as a whole. What they euphemistically call campaign donations turn out to just be bribes to get special consideration for pet legislation. Their practices and actions have turned our nation’s capital into a swamp and as it turns out, golden geese cannot live well in a swamp. Our Congress is well on their way to killing their goose as well.

There is no doubt that others are busy working on their own geese. It happens every day. Greed seems to take over and good common sense goes out the window. The election of Donald Trump should have been an alert to the  greedy everywhere that the people are fed up. The swamp is going to be drained. Time will tell who will survive the drainage.

America is going to return to her earlier greatness and Hollywood, Emmy Awards shows, the national media, and higher education are just going to have to get used to it. You are killing your golden goose.

Ron Scarbro