We had a nice spell of warm weather. Warm by Minnesota in January standards. I'm talking temps above freezing, which is certainly enough to write home about.
All good things come to an end, and Friday the thermometer started dropping and a wind out of the north started picking up. When I left my shop around 7:00 p.m. I could hear the raging of a 30-mph wind, and I thought I could hear the 50-mph gusts that the weatherman had talked about.
But I couldn't feel the wind. In our yard it was almost still, just a faint breeze. I went into the house and told my wife, “I'm glad we've been planting trees for 140 years.”
Our farmhouse sits in the middle of a ten-acre grove. An acre is about the size of a football field and in 1880 when my great-grandparents showed up, there literally wasn't a tree within five miles...so that's a lot.
It made me think about tax cuts, and social security and honestly, a lot of other stuff.
Here's the thing. Do you know how long it takes for a grove of trees to become of any use as windbreak? We're talking a decade, at least, and depending on the trees and the climate, it can be thirty or forty years before a tree hits maturity. The outside five rows I planted nearly fifty years ago are still growing. I always smile when I'm driving down a road and see a building site with nothing but a half-dozen rows of tiny saplings planted on the north and west sides. It's a sign that someone is thinking ahead, getting a jump on the needs of the future.
What's that got to do with our government? Right now, we're talking about a new round of tax cuts. I'm in favor of not paying taxes, but we're already spending 20% more than we're taking in. That's 1.83 trillion dollars - per year. In a way, it's not really my problem. I'm old enough that I can coast to the finish line, but I have children and grandchildren. We're putting a couple trillion dollars a year on our country's credit cards with the expectation that our grandchildren will pay the bills.
It would be pretty easy to blame it on the people in Washington, except for two things. One, the last time we had a balanced budget was in 2001, which is twelve elections ago, and second, the people in Washington are there because we elected them, and they are eager to do what we want so they can keep their jobs.
One example is social security. In 1940, there were 42 workers contributing for every person who collected social security. Now that ratio is 3 to 1 and in 2050, it'll be 2 to 1. That's just math, but the last time there was an attempt to fix the problem was in 1983. It’s actually kind of a simple problem to solve. We collect more money, or we give retirees less money - those are the choices. In another ten years the trust fund that has been building for almost a century will be exhausted, and if nothing is fixed that means everyone collecting social security will have their checks cut by 20%.
Now, I know some folks who use social security to fund their next cruise or pay the mortgage on their winter home. They could handle a 20% cut in benefits. But I know a lot more people who are living off social security and they can't afford to lose two dollars, let alone 20%.
And everyone in Washington knows it. Like I said, it's just math.
I don't understand. I do not understand why in any political debate for national office the first question to each candidate isn't, “What are you going to do to fix Social Security?”
And, when the answer is something like, “Well, the Republicans caused the problem... or the Democrats did...” (which, to be honest, is what would probably happen), then the follow-up question should be, “No. Starting from where we are today, what specifically are you going to do to fix Social Security funding.” If they can't answer that question, they don't deserve one vote.
Social Security is just one example. If we sat down and chatted, I bet we could come up with twenty others – problems that involve looking down the road a decade or two for a solution.
I don't see anyone in Washington interested in planting trees. And if we know anything, we know sooner or later, the wind is gonna blow.
Copyright 2025 Brent Olson