The National Debt: An extra-terrestrial Experience.

Last year I was asked to do an engineering consulting project on the Joint Strike Fighter Program. (JSF). I requested an engineering assistant (EA) to help me with the paperwork, and I was assigned a sharp young engineering graduate from Purdue University. Well… Purdue has turned out some rather decent engineers, and after keeping a sharp eye on his work for a couple of weeks, I found him to be painstaking and reliable. I gave the management the green light, and he was assigned to me for the duration of the consultancy. Towards the tail-end, we were working late in the evening, completing our documentation, and to show my appreciation for his work, I invited him for a couple of beers and Pizza. Sometime during the meal, I could not help bringing up the $67 Trillion debt. “How are you kids going to pay it off?” I asked. “Ah Jim, I don’t worry about that” he countered airily “Sooner or later we will have a breakthrough in space travel and most of us young Americans will emigrate to another planet, and leave the debt to those left behind here. That will never be paid off” “Hmmm…. This young man cannot hold much beer”” I thought. The next day I asked him if he had really been serious, or he was pulling my leg? He really was serious. “Not only do I believe that” he said..”my friends believe that too. We don’t care. You should not either” Well… I am still not sure if I had my leg pulled that evening, You never know. This young man may be correct. How did the ole bard put it?? “”There are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio………..”